


But If You Try

by rip24



Series: Know Your Watcher [3]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:40:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 23,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23844589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rip24/pseuds/rip24
Summary: Took me much longer to write this than I expected and I'm not quite finished but I hope to post fairly frequently in the next week or so. Should be about 8-9 chapters.Thanks to everyone who read, commented and left kudos on the first two parts, hope you enjoy this one!
Relationships: Rupert Giles/Buffy Summers
Series: Know Your Watcher [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1683175
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Took me much longer to write this than I expected and I'm not quite finished but I hope to post fairly frequently in the next week or so. Should be about 8-9 chapters.  
> Thanks to everyone who read, commented and left kudos on the first two parts, hope you enjoy this one!

“Tina you’re going to need a lot more power behind that jump if you want your kick to land, at that speed even a watcher could move out of the way before you got close.”  
Buffy stood in the middle of the training room watching 6 pairs of slayers sparring. She could see Matthew and Rebecca rolling their eyes at her little dig as they sat on a bench on one side of the room. 

“Ok guys that’s enough, stretch and then you're free to go. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Buffy walked from the slayers over to the two watchers.  
“I think the level one’s are ready for their first hands on experience” Buffy said as she sat down next to them.  
“All of them?” Rebecca asked, sounding surprised.

“Well I think all of them are ready but I’m not suggesting taking them all out at once, maybe a group of five, three slayers and two trainee watchers with me and one of you” Buffy finished packing her stuff up as she spoke.

“Hmm I’d like to have at least one of the more advanced slayers along.” Matthew replied.  
“Ok let’s decide this at tomorrow's meeting? My ride's here” Buffy saw Xander walk into the room followed by a familiar redhead.

“Willow?” Buffy shouted, running to hug her friend.  
After a long hug the two girls separated and Buffy turned to berate Xander.  
“You knew about this?”

“She just told me yesterday and only so I’d pick her up from the airport.” Xander put his arm around Willow “I think someone misses her friends.”  
“Hey I love Dawn but she’s the only one left on the other side of the pond, makes a girl want to visit a few times a year. Plus I got to see you be watcher guy, now I get to see Buffy be head slayer or something.” Willow grinned at Buffy.

Buffy saw Matthew and Rebecca walk over.  
“Willow meet Matty and Becca,” Xander said, pointing to the approaching watchers “they have the unfortunate position of telling Buffy ‘no’ when she wants to do something too extreme for the council.”

“So twice a day?” Willow said, laughing when Buffy stuck her tongue out at her.  
“Something like that,” Matthew said laughing as he shook Willow's hand. “Most people call me Matthew by the way,” he added, raising an eyebrow at Xander.

“We met in May right?” Willow asked, greeting Rebecca.  
“That’s right” Rebecca smiled at her “Willow is the witch I told you about Matthew, the one that performed a telepathy spell to coordinate the slayers against those Zakintha demons” she smiled at Xander adding “and Becca is fine with me.”  
“Ahh that sounded like a really handy spell to have around here.” Matthew said.  
“Believe me we’re doing our best to recruit this one” Xander hugged Willow closer to his side.

“So you think we can drag Giles out a little early or?” Xander asked after Matthew and Becca had left.  
“I don’t think so he said he’d probably be home really late tonight but let’s go and see if a certain redhead can convince him to ditch” Buffy grinned at Willow.

Buffy walked out of the elevator with Willow and Xander following.  
“Hey Kat” she said as she got closer to Giles’ secretary “any chance he’s free?”  
“No he’s been locked in there with a group since lunch but let me buzz him for you, my guess is he’ll appreciate the chance to get out for a moment.”

Kat pressed a button and a moment later Giles spoke over the intercom “Yes?”  
“Sorry to disturb you Mr.Giles but Miss Summers is here to see you.”  
“I’ll be right out” Giles answered quickly and almost immediately he came out of his office, closing the door behind him. He leaned back against the door and pushed his hand through his hair with a loud sigh.

“Having a great day I see” Buffy said as she looked him up and down.  
“Yes it already felt” Giles trailed off as he looked over to them “Willow?”  
“Hey Giles, thought I’d surprise you guys again” Willow said cheerily.

“Any specific reason for the visit or just a vacation?” Giles asked Willow after walking over and hugging her briefly.  
“Just missing my friends, this semester doesn’t really involve lectures so I can pretty much work wherever. Why not spend some time in London?”  
“We were hoping to drag you out of here early?” Buffy said looking skeptically from Giles to his office.

“I’m afraid there is no chance of me leaving here anytime soon. On top of my previously scheduled meetings and dinner they just found four new slayers” he ran his hand through his hair again sighing softly.  
“You need help?” Xander and Buffy asked simultaneously.  
Giles chuckled softly “Thank you both but you go and enjoy your time with Willow.” 

“Call me if you need help or if you can join us.” Buffy wanted to hug him. He looked so tired and stressed but they were still trying to keep their relationship out of the council. She squeezed his fingers briefly and tried to put as much love into her smile as she could.  
Giles seemed to understand what she was trying to do, all his features softened as he smiled back.

“Oh by the way Willow are you staying in the guest room again?” Buffy asked, suddenly realising they hadn’t discussed it.  
“That would be great if you don’t mind.” Willow sounded a bit hesitant.  
“Of course you’re welcome to stay. Now go! Have fun and I’ll see the two of you tonight.” Giles added before turning to walk back to his office taking a deep breath before opening the door again. 

The three of them dropped off Willow’s bags at the apartment and then went to dinner where they caught up. Xander and Buffy talked about work and Willow talked about her new classes.  
After dinner they decided to go somewhere to have a few drinks and maybe dance a little bit.  
They found a small circular table with high chairs and Buffy offered to get the first round of drinks.  
“Hey Xander don’t look but there is a pretty blonde girl standing at the corner of the bar and she seems to be looking at you.” Buffy grinned at him as she put their drinks on the table.  
Willow and Xander of course looked simultaneously over their shoulders at the girl who blushed and looked away.  
“Hey I’m here to hang out with you two” Xander picked up his glass raising it for a toast “to reuniting the Scoobies even if it’s just for a couple of weeks.” 

“She’s really cute Xander, you sure?” Willow said after they’d all taken a sip of their drinks “we’ll still be here when you come back.”  
“Yeah I’m sure” Xander said without looking back at the girl “so tell us, Will you seeing anyone special? Or dating at all?” 

“There were a few dates this summer but nothing serious, I’m having a hard time figuring out what I want. I’ve always been relationship girl, maybe I’ll just date for a while, not let things get all intense right away, you know?”  
“Can’t say that I can help you there” Buffy said laughingly “don’t think I’ve ever really dated. Well me and Riley started out a bit slowly, does that count?”

The three of them laughed and finished their cocktails lightly making fun of each other's love lives, a subject Buffy knew none of them could talk about lightly with anyone else. All three of them had such a fraught history with relationships but somehow when you knew that the people you were talking to had a similar amount of pain connected to their past relationships it made it easier to discuss. 

Xander and Buffy took turns getting the drinks and soon they were all a bit tipsy.  
“So how’s life with Giles? I know the stuff you tell me, good food and romance and all the good stuff but you know tell me more.” Willow spoke quickly and excitedly.  
“Yeah it’s been great, I don’t know what you want to hear Will” Buffy narrowed her eyes at her friend.  
“Hey I’m not asking for those kinds of details, or not really. But like what about the age thing has it been an issue?”  
“Not really, I know he sometimes notices some looks from strangers that bother him but I think he’s getting over that. I sometimes have a little issue with how much more experienced he is than me.”  
“I’d think that would be a good thing” Willow waggled her eyebrows and giggled.  
“So not what I was talking about.” Buffy lightly pushed Willow “I meant that I’ve really only had two relationships. Giles has had way more relationships and different experiences with different people and it just makes him so much better at communicating and stuff like that.”  
“That makes sense, but it’s not an actual issue is it?” Willow asked, changing her tone from the earlier teasing.  
“No just an adjustment” Buffy smiled “I’m just so used to the drama. With Angel it was non stop, everything was so intense and with Riley even though it was so different from me and Angel there was always this power struggle and tension. This is just very different and different is good”

When Xander left to go to the bathroom and get them another round Willow scooted her chair closer to Buffy’s.  
“But like the experience is good in other ways too?” Willow giggled again and the look on her face caused Buffy to giggle too.  
“Oh yeah. Things in that department are also very different but very good.” She gave Willow what she hoped was a sly smile “but remember that I will not give you any details about that.”  
“Hey I was staying in the same apartment when the two of you first got together I have a vague idea that you’re quite happy in the bedroom”  
“Oh my god! What exactly do you mean?”  
Willow burst out laughing at Buffy’s reaction.  
“Relax I just forgot my earplugs one night and woke up to some noise, I didn’t hear much.”  
At that moment Xander came back with their drinks.  
“And I promise that I’ll never forget my earplugs again.” Willow added with a grin.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is 95% smut, consider yourselves warned ;)

Buffy watched Xander stumble a bit as he got out of the taxi.  
“You ok there?”   
“Yeah yeah I’m fine, that last round might not have been the best idea. See you tomorrow” Xander replied leaning over the car door, then he laughingly added “if I make it into work.”

They rode in silence the short way between the apartments. Willow was starting to nod off when the car stopped in front of Giles’ and Buffy’s place .When Buffy came out of the car after paying she found Willow sitting on the steps leading to the apartment.  
“Maybe you shouldn’t mix that many drinks with this much jet lag” she mumbled leaning against the handrail.  
Buffy laughed and found her keys before helping Willow up.  
“Let’s get you inside Will, you can sleep as long as you want tomorrow while the rest of us go to work.” She put the key in the lock but looked at Willow before she opened the door.  
“Let’s try not to wake up Giles ok? So as quiet as we can?” 

Willow nodded and straightened up looking determined.  
After they’d both entered and taken off their shoes Buffy opened the door into the living room, before she could enter she snagged her jacket on the doorknob causing her to be pulled backwards, fall on her butt and the door to slam against the wall. Buffy instinctively shushed the door as the noise echoed in the living room. 

Willow burst into laughter behind her and soon the two of them were both lying on the floor hysterically laughing.  
“You two ok?”   
Giles’ voice reminded them that they had intended to be quiet and they both stopped laughing immediately. Buffy looked up to see Giles standing in the door dressed in jeans and a t-shirt.  
“Did we wake you?” She asked as she took his proffered hand and he helped her up.

“No I was awake” he helped Willow up too before giving Buffy a quick kiss in greeting “did you have a nice time?”   
“Yeah it was a really great night” Willow replied walking past them and lying down on the couch “but I’m exhausted now.”  
Giles chuckled “The way the two of you sound and act I think I need to get some food and water in you before you go to sleep.”   
He disappeared into the kitchen and Buffy curled up on an armchair next to the couch.  
“Thanks for letting me stay here Buff” Willow turned to lie on her stomach looking up at Buffy.  
“Hey as far as I’m concerned that room is yours” Buffy smiled at Willow “so what was up with Xander tonight?”

“What do you mean?” Willow furrowed her brows at the question.  
“There were two really pretty girls flirting with him and he just rejected them both”  
“Ahh that” Willow replied “yeah that was strange, they were really pretty and they were both obviously flirting with him and he just….” as Willow babbled on speaking unnaturally quickly Buffy sat up in her chair and crossed her arms raising an eyebrow at Willow.

“What do you know Willow?” Buffy asked in a mock stern voice.  
“I don’t actually know anything but I think he might either be dating or have a really big crush on that watcher Becca”  
Buffy’s jaw dropped “No way? Xander and Becca? Really?”  
“I don’t know but he talks about her a lot and seeing how she looked at him today” Willow wiggled her eyebrows and both girls burst into a fit of giggles. 

Giles came back with food and water for them “here this should sober you up a little” he smirked at Buffy as he sat down in the chair next to her’s.  
“We aren’t really drunk” Willow sounded offended but followed the statement up with drinking half her bottle of water in one go.

Giles rolled his eyes at her “What were you giggling about?”  
“Willow thinks there is something going on between Xander and Becca.”  
“Becca? Rebecca Taylor?” Giles’ face went from looking surprised to impressed when Buffy nodded her assent.  
She narrowed her eyes at him but since her mouth was too full to talk she didn’t say anything.

“So how long are you staying this time?” Giles asked Willow who was just finishing up her food.  
“About ten days, thought I’d manage a bit more tourism this time around” Willow took another drink of her water before adding with a big grin “maybe even get an expert to show me around a museum or two?”  
Giles smiled warmly at her “I think we could arrange that. How about we all try to get together for lunch tomorrow and we can make some plans?”

Willow stood up from the sofa “that sounds great, but I’m off to bed I’m exhausted.”   
She picked up their empty plates and walked to the kitchen “I’ll call you when I wake up tomorrow?”  
“Sounds like a plan, good night” Buffy said getting up from her chair.

She held her hand out to Giles who took it smiling and followed her up the stairs to their bedroom.  
Buffy went into the bathroom and when she came out Giles was sitting on the bed setting the alarm, wearing his t-shirt and boxers, the rest of his clothes lying on a chair by the end of the bed.

“Did your day get any better?” she asked walking over to stand between his legs wrapping her arms around his neck and looking down into his eyes.  
“No can’t say that it did” Giles sighed, then he ran his hands down from her waist to her hips and slid his thumbs against the bare skin between her skirt and her shirt “not yet anyway” he grinned at her before pulling her into his lap.

She giggled until he started kissing up from her collarbone to her earlobe causing her giggle to turn into a soft moan.   
Giles caught her lips in a hard kiss holding her hips tightly and pushing his tongue into her mouth as soon as she opened it.  
As the kiss ended Buffy sighed “That’s better, I officially object to that tiny kiss I got when I got home. After a long day away from you I want a real kiss.” Buffy pouted at him barely holding back a grin.

“Then you should’ve made Willow stay at Xander’s” Giles ran his fingers from her knees up under her skirt sliding them under her panties stroking her ass and pulling her closer to him. She moaned when she felt his erection press against her.  
“Speaking of which you need to be more quiet if you want to do this while Willow is downstairs.” 

Buffy gave him her most wicked grin and ran both hands under his shirt, lifting it up over his head. When she’d removed his shirt she leant into him playing with his chest hair and lightly scraping his nipples with her fingernails.  
“We don’t have to worry about her, she’s sleeping with earplugs in” she said as she started kissing along his jaw.

Giles gave a soft moan as she ran her fingernails back across his nipples but then he stilled and lifted her, moving her over so she lay in the middle of the bed and he laid down beside her.  
“How do you know that?” he asked, looking at her suspiciously.   
“Oh” Buffy bit her lip “it just came up.” 

She ran her hand down his side trying to distract him, Giles grabbed her hand and pinned it against the mattress above her head.  
“Hmm” he grabbed her other hand and lifted it above her head so that he held both of her wrists with his right hand, he ran his left hand slowly up her stomach “what were the two of you discussing exactly?”

Giles smiled at her and moved his hand so that he ran a single finger up and down the exposed skin at her cleavage.  
Buffy could feel her whole body react to just this small touch and closed her eyes lifting her chest up into his touch.  
She could feel him chuckle into her neck more than hear it before he kissed and licked at a sensitive spot under her ear.

“Tell me” he whispered in her ear “or I’ll stop.”  
He chuckled again when she gave a small whimper but didn’t stop. He moved to kiss her and trailed his fingers down her body and up under her skirt groaning when he felt that she was wet enough for it to be felt through her underwear. 

“She heard us once, the last time she was here” Buffy whispered when Giles broke the kiss.   
She bit her lip hoping he wouldn’t be too embarrassed.   
“How much did she hear?” He grabbed the top of her panties and raised an eyebrow at her.

Buffy wasn’t sure what game he was playing or what he wanted to hear but decided that he was probably not going to stop what he was doing no matter what she said.  
“Enough to promise to sleep with earplugs the entire time she stays here” she answered him laughing then gasping when he pulled hard on her underwear pulling it from under her skirt and pushing them down her legs far enough for her to kick them off without him releasing her wrists.

“I don’t want to know more of that conversation do I?” he raised an eyebrow at her as he trailed his fingers agonisingly slowly up her inner thigh.  
“I’ve spent my whole night missing you Giles, do you really want to talk about Willow?”   
Buffy was pretty sure she was more turned on by the smirk on his face than the finger that slowly circled her clit but it was a close competition.

“I don’t know” he released her wrists and moved a little further away from her. She was unsure of why he was continuing this conversation but decided she should just try to make him forget about it.  
She moved quickly, pressing him back onto the bed and straddled his hips. She lifted her shirt over her head and unclasped her bra throwing it to the side.

“Had something more to say?” she rested her hands on his chest and looked down at him grinding herself once against his erection.  
“Not a word” Giles smiled up at her before putting a hand on the back of her neck and pulling her down for a passionate kiss. 

She felt his hands go under her skirt again, it felt like he set her whole body tingling with each touch. Giles broke their kiss to take one of her nipples into his mouth causing Buffy to moan loudly. She reached between them pushing his boxer down far enough to stroke his hard cock a few times but when Giles pushed a finger into her she had to let him go so she could use both hands to steady herself.

He used the opportunity to move her a little higher and closer to him grinding her clit against the head of his cock while he kept on pumping a finger into her.  
Buffy felt dizzy from arousal, she leant forward placing her elbows on each side of Giles.   
“God Giles, that feels amazing” she moaned in his ear before kissing him again letting their tongues tangle for a moment before she had to break away to catch her breath.

“Christ Buffy, I need you” Giles groaned.  
“Please fuck me Giles, need you too”   
He pulled her in for another quick kiss before lifting her up by her hips and entering her slowly in a few increasingly long thrusts.

Listening to the sounds he made was almost enough to make her come. Buffy sat up straighter, allowing him to go deeper and moved her hips in a circle. She smiled at his sharp intake of breath and heard him mutter “fuck” as she started riding him.

She braced both hands against his chest and increased her rhythm with each thrust. Buffy played with one of his nipples making him groan by pulling on it. She enjoyed feeling his hands tightly grip her hips as he got closer. He moved one hand between them rubbing her clit and making her moan. “God don’t stop” she gasped as she felt the tension in her body build. 

Giles reached up to suck on one of her nipples and she threw her head back moaning his name as he softly bit down.  
“Bloody hell Buffy,” he said through gritted teeth, his fingers digging into her hip but never stopping his attention to her clit.  
She started losing her rhythm as her muscles burned from the exertion.

Giles wrapped an arm around her pulling her to him and flipping her over so he was on top but he didn’t continue at her fast pace, he thrust into her in slow long strokes while looking at her face. He ran a hand through her hair and stilled his movements completely.  
“Are you alright, love?” he asked in a soft tone gently brushing his lips against hers.

“What do you mean?”   
“Well you just aren’t as responsive as” he hesitated slightly then chuckled ”well usually you’d come before you felt tired.”  
“I’m sorry I just usually can’t actually uhm finish when I’ve had too much to drink. Everything feels right but I just can’t.” 

Giles chuckled “let’s try something different” he pulled out of her and sat back on his heels.   
“Turn around”   
She looked at him suspiciously.  
“I just want to give you another angle” he pulled her up and into his arms kissing her softly.

Buffy laid down on her stomach and felt Giles lift up her hips and place a soft pillow under her hips. He stroked her back in long soft strokes and massaged her lower back and ass.  
“God you are gorgeous” he ran his fingers up her inner thighs pulling them further apart.

Then she felt him enter her again very slowly as he kissed his way up her spine.  
He put his elbows down on either side of her upper arms and kissed her shoulders and neck as he pulled almost all the way out of her and thrust back in placing a pressure on her clit by pushing her into the pillow under her hips and rubbing against just the right spot inside of her, sending a shiver through her body.

“You ok?” he asked softly in her ear.  
“God yes” she replied sliding one of her hands into his, relishing the feeling of being so completely covered by his body as he started thrusting into her.  
He shifted, placing a bit more of his weight on her as he moved a hand under her to rub her clit again. She couldn’t do anything but gasp and moan at his every thrust as the combined feeling of him sucking and nibbling on her neck, his hard thrusts and the perfect pressure on her clit overwhelmed her.

Giles started whispering in her ear, sweet whispers about how much he loved her and how beautiful she was, telling her how good she felt and as he got closer to his own orgasm his words were mostly soft curses.  
His voice got increasingly rough as he spoke and every word and groan he made turned her on even more.  
“Christ Buffy I’m going to come” he almost growled in her ear and then he pulled his elbow closer to her pulling her body even closer to his and slammed into her harder.

His words, his voice and his touch was enough to get her over the edge and she gasped his name as her whole body shook underneath him. Buffy felt Giles tense as he started coming with a few deep thrusts, chanting her name a few times before softly biting her earlobe.

Giles rolled on his side pulling her with him curling his body around hers.  
“That was intense,” she said laughingly when she’d caught her breath a bit.  
Giles laughed too peppering her with kisses anywhere he could reach easily “that was amazing” he spoke into her ear causing her to shiver.  
He chuckled at that “please don’t tell me you want more, that could actually kill me.”

Buffy turned around in his arms pushing him lightly back on the bed and wrapping an arm and a leg across his body.   
“No I’m exhausted” she sighed twirling her fingers in his chest hair “I can't help it if my body reacts to you” she looked up at him grinning and added “so did your day get any better?”   
Giles laughed pulling her closer and kissing the top of her hair. He reached over and turned off the light then he settled back on the bed holding her tightly and stroking her hair until she fell asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

“So they should reach the last of them by the end of next week and then we’ll know if they’re all joining us or not.” Giles said as they drove to work the next morning.   
They had dressed and eaten breakfast as quietly as they could so they wouldn’t wake Willow. Then Giles had started telling her about the new slayers they had been alerted to the previous day. 

“Ok we’ll be ready for them very soon, I suggested yesterday that we start taking the ones who haven’t patrolled out for their first time.”  
“How many are there?”   
“6 slayers and I think there are also 4 watchers. But we’ll discuss that at this morning's meeting.” Buffy turned a little in her seat to watch Giles as she pressed on to the more important subject “What was going on yesterday? I thought you just had a meeting and dinner with some retired watchers.”  
“Well yes. They aren’t just retired watchers, they’re from the oldest watcher families and we are a bit dependent on them for funding.” Giles sighed deeply and loosened his tie a bit.  
“Funding? I thought the council was fairly well off, old money and all that.”  
“We are but every slayer who joins us needs room and board, not to mention education when they leave London. Rebuilding and gathering back the books and other things we need, it all costs a lot of money. We aren’t as powerful as the old council was, we don’t have the same connections which means we don’t get as many paying jobs which is to say we need these old farts to keep giving us some of their family fortunes.”  
Buffy giggled at Giles’ choice of words but then she realised why this was causing him such trouble.  
“So in return they want to have a say in how we run things?”   
“Yes, they seem to have an opinion about every little thing we do.” Giles sighed again as he parked the car.  
“And my guess is that I wouldn’t agree with them on a single thing?”   
“You would be right” he started to get out of the car but Buffy put her hand on his arm to stop him.  
“Hey” when he turned in his seat to look at her she smiled at him and fixed his tie “you should have talked to me about this before the meeting and even included me in part of it. You know, make me take some of the blame. We’re in this together.” she used his tie to pull him in for a kiss.  
After they broke the kiss he rested their foreheads together and gently held her hand in his.   
“I guess I wanted to spare you and I think I can take care of this by myself but thank you.” He kissed her again and they got out of the car.   
“Hey if nothing else works I can show up and demand all sorts of outrageous things and then you can get them to meet you in the middle and we end up at least getting some of the things we want”  
Giles chuckled at that “I’m fairly certain they think that is what we’re doing right now, if we asked for more they might all have a stroke.” 

Buffy got off the elevator before Giles and went into the training room where the most advanced slayers were waiting for her.   
After their hour of training she met up with Becca and Matthew and they took the elevator up to Giles’ office.  
“That was quite a relaxed training session this morning, only flexibility and meditation” Becca smirked at her “have fun last night?”  
“Was it that obvious?” Buffy asked laughing.  
“Nahh just to me I think” she winked at her “I won’t rat you out to the boss” 

They greeted Giles’ secretary as they walked past her and settled in their usual seats for their daily meeting.   
“So four new slayers have been called and we should get news of them late next week. Please tell me we are about ready to level up and graduate a few of our trainees.” Giles said after their brief greetings.  
“Buffy was just suggesting we take some of our level one slayers out for their first patrol tonight”   
“That’s good to hear, how many are ready for that? And are there any watchers ready?”  
Buffy was always impressed by how convincingly Giles could make it sound that he hadn’t heard this stuff from her first.  
“6 slayers” she said.  
“And there are 4 watchers who I believe to be prepared for a patrol.” Matthew added.  
“But we can’t take that many people out together, especially not for their first patrol.”  
“How about we split them up in two groups? Three slayers with two watchers?” Buffy suggested.  
“Ok so we make the rest wait for a month maybe before they start patrolling, get the first group a bit more independent in the field first.” Becca started writing down notes while she spoke.  
“How about we take all of them out tonight, you two take five trainees and one of the more advanced slayers as support and I take the rest of the trainees with Willow and Xander?” Buffy got very excited by the thought of patrolling with them again.   
She saw one corner of Giles’ mouth quirk into a slight smile.  
“If anyone has a really bad night tonight then we’ll slow them down but it shouldn’t take too long to get the group over the jitters and I know I can convince Willow and Xander to join for a few patrols over the next couple of weeks. Maybe it might even help us in the mission of recruiting Willow. God knows our magic department could use her experience.” 

“Objections?” Giles looked between Matthew and Becca.  
“I’ve learned not to object to her when she gets this excited by a plan” Becca said raising her arms.  
“I’m not agreeing to more than this night’s patrol though. I want another discussion before we take them out for anything other than a basic cemetery sweep” Matthew added.  
“We’ll go over tonight's patrol at Monday’s meeting and re-evaluate. Anything else today?”


	4. Chapter 4

“What? We need three of you to go with us?” Ellie, one of the trainee slayers asked looking offended.  
“Well the plan was for two of us to go with you but the three of us are kind of a package deal” Buffy answered linking her arms with Xander and Willow “we promise we won’t get in your way.”  
Ellie and the rest of the trainees looked skeptically between the three Scoobies but nobody made any further objections.

“So does everyone have everything they need? Stakes? Holy water? Snacks?”  
Buffy elbowed Xander in the ribs but still laughed at him.   
“Get your stuff and meet us downstairs in ten minutes” she said pulling Willow and Xander out the door.

“This is the first time I’m taking a group out for their first time Xander so I’m not asking you to be a stuffy watcher but please help me to not screw this up ok?”  
“Hey Buff don’t you worry” they got on the elevator and Xander pressed the button as he continued speaking “you’ll do great. This is a good group of girls and they are well prepared.” 

When they got to the lobby they found Matthew and Becca already waiting for them.  
“So they got you to join the patrol? They really are trying to recruit you.” Becca smiled at Willow as they got closer.  
“Hey I’m only doing this for the nostalgia” Willow replied laughing “we just need Giles and we’d have the whole Scooby gang together for patrol.”   
“Scooby?” Matthew looked puzzled.  
“Never mind” Buffy and Xander said in unison laughing.

“What’s so funny?” a bright voice with a slight accent asked behind them.  
They turned around to see a young Korean girl walking towards them with a large takeaway cup of coffee. She was dressed in all black, yoga pants and a flowy shirt that could have passed for a dress.  
“Some sort of Sunnydale inside humour” Matthew answered rolling his eyes.

“Willow this is Gyeong, she’s one of our almost graduates” Buffy introduced the two girls “she’s going with Becca and Matthew tonight.”   
Turning to Gyeong she added “this is Willow she’s a friend of ours from Sunnydale she’s coming with me and Xander.”   
Gyeong started to say something when loud voices filled the lobby. 

The group turned to see ten people get off the elevator, seven girls and three boys. One of the girls, a very tall blonde, was telling a story making the rest of the group laugh loudly.   
Buffy took a deep steadying breath and looked back at the group she was standing with “here we go!”

Becca took the lead, leading the entire group outside to the two vans that waited for them. The trainees split wordlessly into the two predetermined groups and got into the cars. Xander and Becca each got into the drivers seats of the different vans and finally Matthew and Gyeong got into Becca’s van while Willow got into Xander’s.

Buffy walked over to Becca’s window “so I’ll text you when we get there so you know when we're starting our patrol, you said it should take us about an hour to get to the middle where we’ll meet up with you right?”   
“Yeah shouldn’t take more than an hour, see you then and be careful” Becca smiled at Buffy and started the car.  
“You too” Buffy smiled back and jogged to the other car and got in the back with the trainees.

It was dark by the time Xander parked at the cemetery and the group filed out of the car. The trainees had been excited when they left the council building but as they drove the tension in the car had become palpable. The fact that no one had spoken in the last 10 minutes told Buffy that her slayers were nervous and she debated with herself if she wanted them nervous for the extra adrenalin or if they would concentrate better if she tried to calm them down. She mentally chided herself for not discussing this with Giles before.  
“Everyone have their weapons?” Xander asked before locking the car. He then called the two watcher trainees over to him as Buffy called the three slayers to her side.

“Hey girls before we go in there I want you all to take a few deep breaths” Buffy said, looking over the three girls who all of a sudden looked so much younger than they did in the training room.   
“Make sure you feel centered, bonus points to the slayer who senses the first vampire” she winked at them before turning to the cemetery gates.

“Tina and Ellie you go to the back of the group with Willow, Gabrielle and me will go first and the watchers in the middle.” Buffy stated with all the authority she could muster and walked through the gate. Reminding herself that the girls were well trained and that they weren’t likely to meet anything other than a few newly risen vampires.

They walked in silence for a few minutes, when they didn’t see any trace of vampires everyone started to calm down, the younger slayers seemed to go back to being excited.   
“So you two used to patrol with Buffy?” Ellie asked from the back of the group.  
“We didn’t patrol that often but we helped out with research and the big stuff” Willow replied “could’ve used a few extra slayers back in Sunnydale”

Gabrielle looked pensive but didn’t say anything.  
“You alright?” Buffy asked quietly hoping the rest of the group wouldn’t hear her as Willow talked about the multiple cemeteries of Sunnydale.  
“Yes, it’s just strange to be out here finally” Gabrielle answered. She’d been called four months earlier, although she already spoke english when she came to London for her training she still had a fairly thick french accent. “I’ve spent months training for this but I still don’t know what to expect.”  
“Maybe if we got to go out sooner, actually see a vampire or a demon.”

Buffy turned around to look at the trainee watcher that muttered that statement, by the look on his face he hadn’t meant for her to hear him.   
“What? You're complaining that we don’t put you in dangerous situations sooner?” she raised her eyebrow at him wondering how far he would push the subject.  
He didn’t reply but the other trainee watcher squared her shoulder before saying “it would just be easier to take all of this stuff seriously if we actually knew what we were facing.”

Buffy shrugged, she couldn’t believe that they were actually accusing them of overprotecting them.   
“Let’s have this discussion after tonight ok? I remember when the old council sent me what they called a well trained watcher to replace my actual watcher. His reaction to vampires gave me the impression that he might have appreciated a bit more training before going out in the field.”

Xander and Willow both chuckled.   
“God poor Wesley was not prepared for Sunnydale” Xander added “believe me kids you want some training before you go face to face with these things.”  
“I still think those of us with a supernatural ability to fight demons should, you know be given the chance to fight them” Ellie piped up from the back of the group.

The group fell completely quiet when Gabrielle suddenly shushed them.  
“Well we know who gets the bonus points” Buffy said softly turning around to see something move in the distance.   
“Weapons at the ready, Xander you three stay back but stay alert”

She gestured to the slayers to follow her lead and walked closer to the movement. When she was certain that what they were dealing with was a vampire she stopped and turned to the slayers.  
“It’s a vamp and I think it’s newly risen. I want you all to stop a moment and center yourselves. Close your eyes and try to find that part of you that tells you where it is. Think about what it feels like to be this close to a vampire. Try to remember it so you can recognise it easily” she whispered, taking in each slayer in turn.

They all looked nervous but they all trusted her enough to close their eyes. Buffy made sure that the vampire hadn’t noticed them and when all of the slayers had opened their eyes again she looked at Ellie.   
“I’ll go first but you be ready when I call your name ok?”   
The girl looked petrified for a split second but then she gave Buffy a curt nod, drew her stake and turned towards the vampire.

The vampire had finally noticed them and had been trying to sneak closer when the whole group turned to look at him. It stopped for a moment and looked over the group smiling. Then it charged, ran full force towards them. 

Buffy ran out to meet it but ducked when the vampire lunged for her, she then quickly kicked it in it’s side and smoothly ducked again when the vampire spun to kick her back.  
“Congratulations you’ve been chosen to be our first guinea pig of the night” she said before punching it square in the jaw.  
“Ellie you ready?” she called as she kicked the vampire in the chest causing it to fall to the ground. When Buffy heard no reply she looked back and saw all three girls standing stiff and white faced.

“Xander!” she called before turning back to the vampire, she didn’t want to kill it before the girls got their turn so she tried to just keep it lying down by kicking it each time it tried to get up.

She could hear Xander try to give the girls a pep talk and after a short while she heard him call out her name. She backed away from the vampire allowing it to get to its feet and soon Ellie was running past her to throw her first punch. She got in some really good punches and Buffy could see the vampire was getting tired. Ellie seemed to be getting ready to stake the vampire, kicking it to the ground and bending over it. 

“Don’t kill it” Buffy shouted and Ellie changed course and backed away as the vampire turned its focus on Buffy.  
“Gabrielle you’re up” Buffy said as she circled the vampire. Gabrielle didn’t move, she stood completely frozen.  
“Gabrielle you can do this, come on” Buffy shouted as she ducked an attack from the vampire.  
She saw Tina and Ellie move to stand on either side of Gabrielle, she saw they were talking but couldn’t hear them.   
All of a sudden Gabrielle ran at the vampire kicking it from behind hard enough for it to fall to the ground.  
Buffy heard the other two slayers cheer her on and smiled. After Gabrielle had gotten in a few good punches Buffy looked at Tina and asked “ready to finish him?” 

Tina beamed at her and joined the fight quickly, after just a couple of kicks she plunged her stake into his chest and the vampire burst into a cloud of dust.  
Cheers erupted from the group, Ellie and Gabrielle ran to Tina and they all hugged while the watchers clapped.

Buffy looked to Willow and Xander who were exchanging amused looks, the joy was infectious however and the group walked on in good spirits.  
It didn’t take long for them to spot another vampire. This time Gabrielle took the first turn and didn’t hesitate before running at it, obviously giving it her all, Buffy almost felt sorry for the obviously newly risen vampire as it was beaten to a pulp by the slayer that seemed determined to prove herself.  
“Ellie go and stake it while there is still something left of it” Buffy said laughing. 

They met up with the other group when they were about half way through the cemetery.  
“We dusted one.” Gyeong said, looking proudly at her fellow slayers.  
“We got two!” Replied the three girls in Buffy’s group simultaneously.  
The two groups of trainees merged and they excitedly exchanged stories. 

“Did everything go ok?” Matthew asked as he walked up to stand beside Buffy, both of them smiling at the trainees who radiated triumph and happiness.  
“Yeah fairly smooth going after the initial terror” she softly bumped her shoulder to his upper arm “I think we’ve done pretty good with this group. How did it go?”  
“There was a little hesitation but nothing serious.”   
Matthew replied, still smiling “I think you’re right about them.”

“Ok everyone lets get back to the cars, I doubt there will be anymore action to have around here but no one lets their guard down, alright? Hopefully we’ll see a few more at the next place” Becca called to the group and started to walk away.  
“What? We’re going to another cemetery?” Ellie asked, looking to the other trainees.  
“Of course” Matthew looked about as confused as the trainees.

“But you said we would likely be patrolling every night this week, did you actually mean that we’re going to be spending all night every night being led around cemeteries with a group of you to watch over us? We just get no free time this whole week?” Ellie crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at the watchers as she spoke.  
“This week? The patrols just change after this week, you don’t get a lot of free time for the next month” Gyeong moved to stand closer to the trainees and took a similar pose to Ellie’s.  
“Hey we’re working on trying to guarantee some free time for you guys but training needs to come first.” Buffy said defensively. 

“You’re working on it? Aren’t the three of you in charge of our departments?” Tina piped in adding air quotes around her last word.  
Matthew and Becca both started trying to calm the slayers down while Buffy walked over to where Xander and Willow were standing a little way from the group. She understood the slayers very well, remembering all times she and Giles had argued about the same thing. She also felt that these slayers had it so much better than her at their age so she was having a hard time feeling too sorry for them.

“You good Buff?” Xander asked when she joined them.   
“Yeah fine, just feeling like I’m in the middle here, arguing for them in one room and arguing with them in another.” she sighed leaning against a headstone and watching the argument go on.

“Come on Buffy you must remember how it was for you. Did you always just do what your watcher told you too? Did you never want more time to….I don’t know, be a teenager?” Ellie spoke in a pleading tone.   
Xander snickered which earned him an elbow in the ribs from Willow.  
“No, I didn’t always do what my watcher told me,” Buffy said grudgingly.

“Yeah there was that time you lied to Giles and went to a frat party” Xander said smiling “and almost got eaten by a giant lizard demon.”  
“Oh and the time she ignored Giles and went on a date” Willow said enthusiastically “and he was almost killed by vampires because he went on without you.”  
Buffy raised an eyebrow at her friends “Very helpful guys.”

“That’s not the point here, our situations are very different. You just get through these months while you’re here training and then you’ll have more free time when you leave.” Buffy turned to the group of trainees.  
“Not how it works for us” one of the watchers in training added with a pout.  
“We are also trying to guarantee more independence for the watchers I promise. Just a little patience ok? Things are changing.”

Buffy didn’t really get a reply to that, just some disgruntled sounds of assent and then the trainees split up into their two groups and started walking in the directions they had come from.  
Buffy caught Becca’s eye who gave a little shrug before following her group.

The walk back started quietly, a tension looming over the group after the argument.  
Gabrielle suddenly turned to Willow and asked “is it true that you helped a big group of slayers by speaking to them in their heads?”   
Willow and Buffy smiled at her, thankful that she’d started the group on another subject.  
“Yeah, that’s true”   
The whole group stopped and looked at Willow.  
“God, I hate it when you do that.” Xander said with an exaggerated gesture like he was trying to push Willow out of his head.

Willow gave him a small apologetic smile.  
“Why don’t we use that more often?” Gabrielle asked Buffy but Willow answered.  
“Because not many witches can do it” pointing to Xander she added “and most people don’t like it. But it came in handy a few times, you know covert plans or coordinating attacks.”

“What other magic did you use for fighting demons?” Wyatt, one of the trainee watchers, asked, sounding very curious.  
“Oh there were a few, I once teleported the big bad away from a fight we couldn’t win, although I don’t think I’ll do that again unless I figure out a few things.” she grimaced but then her eyes lit up and she excitedly added “I once staked a vampire by levitating a pencil into its heart.”

“I think we should learn more magic like that.” Wyatt said in a firm tone “things that actually could help us in a fight, assist our slayers and defend ourselves.”   
“You will if you show the aptitude for it” Xander said “and when we have more teachers, we are a little lacking in the magic department at the moment.” 

“Hey girls” Buffy interrupted the discussion “are none of you aware of that?” she pointed towards the shape of a man standing by the cemetery gate. The girls all looked in the direction of the man as he opened the gate and walked out. Buffy ran after him with the three slayers trailing her. 

The man was nowhere to be seen when she got to the parking lot, she couldn’t be sure he was a vampire but if he was he wasn’t newly risen as the other two they had faced tonight.  
The girls formed a semi circle behind her and they were all completely quiet.

“Buffy!” Willow’s voice rang out and all four slayers turned as one and ran back through the gate.  
The man they had been chasing was a vampire, he stood between the slayers and the others, and when he glanced back Buffy could see he was in vamp face. He was not alone, on the other side of Willow and the watchers was a female vampire. She smiled at the group of slayers.  
“This is who you call out to for help? Four little girls?”

Buffy ignored her and looked to the other slayers.  
“Ok girls the first two were a warm up. These are not newly risen so you should expect them to put up more of a fight.” She spoke quietly but knew that the vampires could hear her anyway.   
The one closer to them turned around and raised an eyebrow at her.  
“You planning to put up a fight? I love it!” He was tall and muscular, Buffy hoped that meant he wouldn't move as fast.

“Gabrielle you’re with me, you two go for the girl.”   
Out of the corner of her eye she could see Xander and Willow each pull a trainee watcher closer to them and they all seemed ready to get out of the way. 

Without a word Buffy lunged at the vampire and all of a sudden everyone was in motion.  
She could hear the female vampire scream and saw Gabrielle run around the vampire stake in hand.   
The fight was over quickly, Buffy stood back to let Gabrielle stake the vampire who had not been ready for both of them to attack him at once.

“You ok?” she asked Gabrielle quickly and when she got a firm nod in reply she looked over to the other fight just as Tina staked the other vampire.   
All four slayers dusted themselves off and checked on the rest of the group.  
“Everyone alright?” Buffy asked looking over all five trainees.

“Yeah, you were not kidding about them being better fighters than the newly risen ones but Wyatt managed to give us a head start by dousing her with holy water before we even got in a punch” Ellie spoke rapidly clearly overexcited. 

“Great job guys, no injuries?” Buffy said with a beaming smile, feeling a sense of pride in the three slayers.   
“They got in a few hits” Xander said going over to Tina and Ellie “I think you should probably put some ice on that jaw.”  
“I think that’s enough for tonight then, let's get back to the car and I’ll call Becca and let her know of our change of plans.”

They drove to the dorm where a watcher with medical training was waiting for the girls.  
“Matthew called and said you might need some assistance” he said when the group came into the building.  
“We’re fine.” Tina said quickly but gave herself away by grabbing her jaw.  
“I’m sure they will all be great in the morning but a quick check up can’t hurt right?”   
The slayers shrugged but walked over to the watcher.

“Hey girls before you go, just know you did a really good job tonight. You all managed to dust a vampire on your first night out and yeah just did a really good job.” She gave them an awkward smile disappointed in her lame pep talk. “ I’ll see you for training tomorrow.” 

“What do you want to do now? Where’s Giles?” Willow asked while they were walking back to the car.  
“He was going to a bar to meet some friends, I’ll call him while we drive the car back to the council. See if he’ll ditch them for us.”  
“Or we could join, you know if that’s ok with him. It was fun to meet his friends the last time and he shouldn’t have to ditch them for us.” Willow suggested looking from Buffy to Xander.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Scoobies meet up with Giles' friends at a bar but something isn't quite right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a fair bit longer than the rest.  
> Maybe I should have split it into two chapters or been a harsher editor but here we are!  
> Thanks to everyone still reading :)

“So we’re welcome to join them, Giles said we’d know everyone there and they are at a pub close by.” Buffy told Xander when he came back outside after returning the car keys and sat next to Willow and Buffy on the steps.  
“Wow don’t sound too excited there Buff” Xander laughed “you don’t want to hang out with Giles and his friends?”  
“It isn’t that it's just…” Buffy sighed “so there is this thing I haven’t told you about this group Giles hangs out with.”

Xander and Willow gave each other a confused look.  
“What do you mean, aren’t they the same people that were at his apartment when we surprised him?” Willow sounded more worried than confused.  
“Yeah but they weren’t all there that time and you know it’s like a big group and they meet often but not everyone can make it all the time. But there is this one person that belongs to the group that we know that wasn’t there last time.”

“Who is it Buffy? The suspense is killing me here? You’re sounding more like Willow than yourself with the fast rambling.”  
Buffy gave him a weak smile in return. “Maybe this won’t be as big of an issue for you guys as it was for me. The only really big fight me and Giles have had was about this but erm... it’s Ethan.”  
For a moment Xander and Willow only looked more confused.

“Wait Ethan Rayne?” Xander asked incredulously.  
“Yeah”  
“Giles is friends with Ethan Rayne? How? After everything? And wait wasn’t he in Nevada or someplace like that all locked up?”  
Buffy smiled at her friends “thanks for being on my side guys. He got out of Nevada when the army got rid of The Initiative. I think he escaped rather than being set free although Giles was a little vague about that but he says he’s changed.” Buffy shrugged and stood up.  
“We can just go home Giles says he understands if I don’t want to see Ethan.”  
“No let’s go check this out see if Giles is right in trusting this guy” Xander stood and helped Willow to her feet.

As they walked to the bar Buffy told Willow and Xander most of what Giles had told her. When he moved back to London and contacted some old friends he found that Ethan had been back for some time and that he and Olivia and a few others met up regularly. Giles had refused to meet with him at first Ethan had however apologised and made some promises about changing his ways. 

“And what Giles just believes him?” Xander stopped walking and crossed his arms.  
“He tried to make that demon kill you and tried to make you kill Giles” Willow added in a shocked high pitched voice.  
“I know, I’m right there with you guys. Which is why this was a big fight.”  
“But you haven’t seen him since Giles told you all this?” Xander asked, running his hands through his hair looking furious.  
“No we came to the agreement that I wouldn’t have to meet him if I didn’t want to, he wouldn’t be invited over to our apartment and that Giles would be careful around him.” Buffy sighed “which is why he gave me this warning tonight so that I could decide not to join since Ethan was there, I think this is the first time Giles has seen him since we got together.” 

“I can’t believe Giles would do this”  
“Xander I can’t really explain it all. If you want to discuss this with Giles then that is your choice but if we go in there we have to at least try to be civil. Otherwise we should just skip it, I don’t want to go in there just to ruin their night ok?”  
“Ok I’ll do my best, we’ll just leave if it’s an issue?”  
Buffy sighed again but nodded. Xander started walking again and Buffy followed wondering how this could ever end in anything but a disaster.

When they got to the bar Xander moved to allow Buffy to walk in first. The bar was full of people but it wasn’t too loud. It wasn't dark but the cloud of cigarette smoke in the air made it seem darker at first, it was exactly what Buffy imagined when Giles said he was at a ‘pub with some mates’. There were people on one side playing darts and the bar itself was in the centre of the room on the other side of it she saw Giles and all of the people who had been at his apartment when she arrived there in the spring, minus Liz and John but with the dreaded bonus of Ethan Rayne who sat next to Giles. He was still as slim, his hair graying at the temples, well dressed and looking very relaxed leaning back in his chair.

Giles somehow noticed them and came over, he had obviously gone home and changed before coming here since he was wearing dark jeans and a henley instead of the three piece suit he’d been wearing in the office. 

He greeted Buffy with a soft but lingering kiss holding the nape of her neck and stroking his thumb over her cheek.  
“Did everything go alright?” he asked, looking her over. When he was satisfied she wasn’t injured he slipped his arm around her waist. She put her arm around his waist in return, snuggling in close enjoying his unusual display of affection. She assumed it was his usual worry about her safety while patrolling combined with an attempt to make her feel more comfortable in Ethans presence.  
“Not exactly according to plan but the girls did a good job and no injuries to speak of” Xander sounded strangely formal, having obviously given Giles similar reports before.  
“That’s good, and you’re sure you’re up for this?” Giles asked, glancing over at the table. When Buffy did the same she saw that Ethan was watching them and he didn’t look as relaxed as before. She wondered whether Giles had warned Ethan that she was joining them. The slight tension in him at seeing her helped her to relax. 

Buffy leaned into Giles and when he looked down at her she just nodded. He gave her a quick kiss again and they walked over to the table together.  
“I think everyone here has met before,” Giles stated as he helped Buffy pull extra chairs to the table.  
Buffy smiled at the group trying her best to act like Ethan wasn’t there. 

Ed, one of Giles’ friends, had been talking when they came to the table and resumed his story as the four of them sat down. He slowly stopped talking as he noticed the tense silence and the way Xander and Willow were staring at Ethan, who sat opposite them. 

“Ethan?” Ed turned in his seat to look at the man sitting beside him “do you want to explain or shall I just imagine what you did to these kids?”  
Ethan simply shrugged but when no one said anything he sat up in his chair and gestured towards Xander and Willow.  
“I truly have no idea what I did to either of them but if they are as overprotective of the slayer as Rupert” he briefly met Buffy’s eyes and grinned “she may have been an accidental victim in a few of the pranks I pulled on Rupert over the years.”

Buffy felt her jaw drop but before she could say anything she felt Giles put his hand on her thigh and to her surprise she could hear him chuckling.  
“Yes an apt description as usual Eth.”  
Ethan laughed softly and then sighed and picked up his beer.  
“I should have had something stronger than this” before he brought the glass to his lips Giles passed him his tumbler of scotch which Ethan took and downed. He then looked at Buffy and took a deep breath “I’m not going to apologize for everything I did in Sunnydale but I’ll admit that I did go too far on a number of occasions and that you could have been harmed and I am sorry about that.” when he stopped speaking he sighed once more and leant back in his chair looking between Giles and Buffy. 

Buffy was fairly certain that she had closed her mouth at some point but she found her jaw hanging again. She searched for words, a large part of her wanted to argue with him but at the same time she knew that Giles must have had this conversation with him and her causing a scene in a bar was probably not going to make her feel better.  
Before she managed to decide what she wanted to say Ed asked “What pranks?” looking at Ethan with a big grin.

Xander was the one to answer “Well there was the time he turned us all into our halloween costumes” Xander said with a small smile. Olivia laughed loudly at that and received a glare from Giles in return.  
”He did it to about half the town, including children. Could have been a disaster. Not to mention rendering the slayer defenceless.” Buffy smiled when she heard that Ethan had not been completely forgiven.  
“And that was probably his best visit.” Xander added dryly.

“Let’s just say these three” Giles pointed to Buffy, Willow and Xander “have a good reason to dislike Ethan. But I promise he’s trustworthy now.”  
Ethan put his hand on his chest in a gesture of mock offence.  
“No matter what he’ll try to tell you” Giles added with a chuckle.

“You guys ready for another round?” a waitress came to stand between Lianna and Xander. She was a little older than Buffy, tall, blonde, curvy and spoke with an american accent.  
“Yes please!” Ethan said, quickly emptying his beer glass “pints all around I think.”  
“Sure thing” the waitress answered with a big smile.

“So another night where we get to hear stories of Sunnydale” Lianna grinned at the three of them.“It really sounds like there was never a dull day over there.”  
“They were few and far between, if the hellmouth didn’t throw something at us we seemed to find trouble of our own.” Giles looked at Ethan with a small shake of his head.  
“Well there must be some stories you can tell, you told us they all dated demons, no fun stories there?” Lianna asked with a smirk but before she could press further the waitress came back with their drinks. 

She handed pints to each of them stopping to bend down closer between Ethan and Giles.  
“You two good with the pints or do you want more scotch?”  
“Were fine with the pints, thank you” Giles answered with a soft smile and the waitress leaned closer to him as she got the empty tumbler from the table before moving on to hand out the rest of the pints.  
Buffy noticed that Ethan was looking at her with a smug grin and she tried to act like she hadn’t been watching the waitresses every move. 

“Where were we? Ah right trying to get stories of Sunnydale.”  
“Most of our stories are either embarrassing or have tragic endings. I beg you to change the subject.” Giles said before taking a swig of his beer.  
Lianna looked disappointed but didn’t press the subject.  
“Have I ever told you the first time I met the two of them?” Olivia scooted her chair closer to Lianna’s but looked directly at Ethan and Giles as she spoke.  
“Finally someone who’s willing to share.”  
“You see the key here is that I have more stories of the two of them than they have of me” Olivia winked at her “my guess is that the Sunnydale group keeps quiet because they all know too much about each other.”

“So I was 18 and I went with a group of friends to the grimiest club I’d ever been to. We really thought we were the coolest and toughest people in the world. We go in there and pretty much everyone is dressed in black, leather and denim. Everyone looked just about as cocky as us.” Olivia lightly laughed and shook her head at the memory. “There was a band playing and despite the horrible sound system they sounded pretty good so I tried to get closer to the stage. The club was packed so I couldn’t get close but I got close enough to see their leading man, playing guitar and singing at the edge of the stage with groups of girls fawning over him.”

Buffy looked up to see Giles blush and heard Ethan bark a laugh and mutter “Sounds familiar.”  
“Well I decided to try and find him after their set, which I did in the alley behind the club. A group of girls awkwardly trying to get his attention while he completely ignored them. God you looked so cocky.” The whole table laughed at that.  
“Well I was, or at least pretending to be.” Giles replied dryly.

“Well while I was trying to figure out how I could get closer without joining the groupies, this boy who looked like he’d stumbled in from a whole different scene, you know more Bowie than Sid Vicious starts flapping his mouth at a group of guys who were all a lot bigger than him.”  
Olivia’s eyes traveled to Ethan and Buffy heard Giles laugh and say “Sounds very familiar.”  
“Well next thing I know a big fight has broken out, the groupies are screaming, the glam rocker laughing and the boy I’d come looking for was fighting two guys at once.” Olivia smirked at Giles “And intriguingly he looked like he had spent his life training to fight. All of a sudden the whole alley filled with smoke, no fire, no noise just smoke. Everyone scrambled out of there and as I came out of the alley I saw the band and the boy running off and laughing loudly.”

“So the first time you met them you didn’t actually meet them?”  
“I hadn’t thought of it that way, no I guess I didn’t” Olivia smiled “but after that I was fascinated so I figured out when the band was playing next”  
“And then used me to get closer to Ripper” Ed cut in, looking at Olivia with a raised eyebrow causing the whole group to laugh.

“How did you meet them?” Lianna asked.  
“Rupert saved my band by showing up just after our singer had left us. We were wallowing in a bar and he overheard us talking and insisted we let him join. We didn’t think much of him, was all too proper.” Ed smirked at Giles as he spoke the last words in a haughty way.  
“But we let him audition and it turned out he was better than the prat who’d left us so we couldn’t turn him down.”  
“And Ethan?” Lianna pushed.  
“Hmm” Ed turned to look at Ethan with narrowed eyes. “He just started showing up, can’t even remember the first time.”  
Ethan just shrugged and reached for his beer.

“I guess that brings us to you two” Xander turned in his seat to look more directly at Giles and Ethan “what twist of fate brought you together?” he said in a dramatic voice causing Ethan to laugh he didn’t answer though just looked at Giles.  
Giles turned his glass in a couple of circles on the table, then he looked up at Ethan for a while before chuckling.  
“Ripper saved my life.” Buffy was certain she’d never heard Ethan talk in such a serious tone. He quickly changed to his usual more flippant attitude as he added “found me trying to fight off a vampire and very much losing the fight. He swooped in and killed the thing easily.”  
“I don’t know about easily.” Giles laughed, “it nearly got us both.”  
“Well at least I got out with most of my blood, I really did think I’d finally gotten myself into something I couldn’t get out of. All of a sudden I was dropped on my arse and the vampire stood over me screaming. I found out later that Ripper had dropped a cross down the back of its shirt.” Ethan laughed, raising his beer glass to Giles “I’ll admit that I was of no help, just sat there dumbfounded as this stranger fought off and staked the thing. Don’t know which hurt my ego worse, simply needing rescue or that I was frozen on my arse while this posh bugger rescued me.” 

“So wait you said Giles was ‘too proper’ when he tried to join the band,” Willow said to Ed and then turned to Ethan “and now you’re calling him posh” she finally looked at Giles “was that right after you left Oxford?” she seemed to be deep in thought.  
“Yes I’d only been in London a week or two when I joined the band and met Ethan a few days later.”  
“So which is your real accent? I always thought we’d heard your real accent when you reverted to Ripper.”  
Buffy saw Giles’ skin turn red around his collar and heard Ethan laugh.  
“Oh no his accent is very much from his fine breeding. We quickly fixed that along with his name as it didn’t really suit his new image.”  
“When he reverted to Ripper?” Lianna asked, wide eyed from curiosity.  
“One of Ethan’s visits involved cursing the adults to regress” Willow explained giving an exaggerated shiver at the memory “they all acted like teenagers, all our teachers and parents and everyone.”  
Olivia sniggered and Ed and Lianna soon joined her in laughter.  
“You have to admit that it was an extraordinary piece of magic” Ethan leaned forward and looked Willow in the eye.  
“Ethan” Giles’ voice was stern but Ethan just grinned at him.  
“Not saying I’d do it again just pointing out that logistically it was a little impressive.” he sat back in his chair and crossed his legs “and you had fun I know you did and the slayer saved the day, no harm done….mostly.”

“How are we doing over here?” The waitress came back standing behind Ed and Ethan “does anyone need another drink?”  
“Just bring everyone another round dear, the stories are just getting interesting.” Ed grinned at Xander and Willow.  
“I’ll be right back” she replied and started walking away.  
“Excuse me” The waitress turned around to look at Buffy “do you serve any food?”  
“No sorry we just have some crisps” she gave Buffy an apologetic smile “but you can bring stuff in here from the chippie next door.”  
“So translated to our English I can get chips here and fries next door?” The waitress laughed at that and nodded “they have other stuff too and most of it’s really good if you’re up for something greasy” she added with a smile before walking away.  
“I’m starving I think I’ll go over and get some food”  
“I’ll go with you” Giles stood up with her grabbing his black leather jacket from the back of his chair.

“Perfect, now these two can tell us stories of you two while you’re away” Lianna said with a beaming smile.  
“Just remember Xander, we can tell quite a few stories of our own.” Giles said, patting Xander on the shoulder.  
“Hey you just go feed your girlfriend” Xander smirked at them before adding “what was it Faith used to say that slaying always made her hungry and” he stopped talking as Willow hit him on the arm.

Buffy blushed and looked up at Giles who was watching her with a raised eyebrow. “What did she say?”  
“Nothing,” Buffy said sternly looking at Xander “and I never agreed with her anyway.”  
She walked out of the bar and could hear Xander chuckle as she went.

Buffy got her fries and started walking back to the bar.  
“Want to sit there while you eat?” Giles pointed to a bench a little further down the road. She raised an eyebrow at him.  
“I just wanted a few moments with you alone” he smiled at her, bending down to kiss her cheek.  
Buffy smiled back and nodded, Giles put his hand on the small of her back and they walked over to the bench. Giles sat in the middle of it and Buffy sat down with her back against the arm rest and lifted her legs up so she could bend them over his lap. 

“So what did Faith say?” Giles looked at her with a teasing smile as he stole one of her fries.  
Buffy pursed her lips and then sighed, it made no sense to be embarrassed about this with Giles of all people.  
“She said that slaying always made her hungry and horny.”  
Giles laughed loudly at that.  
“It makes sense I guess, adrenaline of a fight and all that. Nothing slayer specific really.” He was slowly and absentmindedly stroking his fingers up and down her legs.  
“Something you remember from your days spent in alleys?”  
He briefly rolled his eyes at her “something like that yes”

“So you ok to be in there with him?” he asked after a short silence.  
“Yeah it’s fine. My guess is he’ll always be the type to stir up some trouble though so maybe we shouldn’t leave him with a rapt audience for too long.”  
“Ah fair point” Giles moved as if to get up but Buffy put her hand on his shoulder to stop him.  
“Are our stories from Sunnydale really that bad? You seem very intent on us not telling them.”  
“No there are many great stories from Sunnydale, it’s just” he briefly hesitated, looking down at his fingers still trailing over her legs “when it’s just us four” he stopped again and turned back to look back at her, moving a little closer placing his hand over her thigh “we all lost so much. Neither Xander nor Willow seem to be able to talk about Anya and Tara easily yet so I don’t want to bring up any story that involves them, add in Angel, Spike and Jenny it can just feel like walking a minefield to talk about that time.”  
Buffy looked at him for a while thinking that over.  
“Well I can promise that I’m capable of talking about both Angel and Spike without freaking out and I think you’ve become more comfortable talking about Jenny so if we need to change the subject in there we can just stick to stories from the first two years” she started laughing as she finished talking “god our lives are so strange.”  
Giles smiled and reached over to softly stroke a finger over her cheek.

They just looked at each other for a moment and then Giles took her empty box of fries from her and threw it in the bin next to the bench. He then stood up and pulled her up and into his arms.  
“So you shouldn’t be hungry anymore” he said with a smile “anything else I can help you with.” He ran his hand down her back and slid it into her back pocket pulling her close.  
“Nothing you do out here will make me less horny Giles” she pushed him away laughing and started walking back to the pub.

He caught up to her easily wrapping his arms around her from behind and nuzzling his face into the crook of her neck.  
“Do you think Willow and Xander would forgive us if we abandon them here and just go back to the flat?”  
Buffy leaned back into him loving how his large frame enveloped her.  
“I think Ethan and Olivia would tell them enough stories to make up for it.”  
Giles groaned into her neck “Fine.” She felt one of his hands travel down her stomach and briefly the tips of his fingers ran into the waistband of her jeans. The brief touch of his fingers made her skin tingle and she let out a small gasp.  
She turned her head and looked up, slipping her hand into his hair to pull him down for a kiss. His tongue slid along her bottom lip, she opened her mouth and he quickly took the opportunity to deepen the kiss caressing her tongue with his.  
Buffy broke the kiss when she heard someone wolf whistle on the other side of the street.  
She saw Giles lick his lips as he stared at hers and she was amazed at how much the sight turned her on. 

“They can wait a few more minutes.” Giles said before pulling Buffy into a side street next to the bar. He pushed her up against the wall and kissed her deeply. She slid her hands under his jacket and over his back feeling his body heat through his shirt.  
“What’s gotten into you?” she asked and giggled as he nuzzled his face into the crook of her neck and his stubble tickled her slightly.  
“Want me to stop?” Giles asked in a low husky voice as he started kissing up and down her neck.  
“No” she moaned as he sucked and nibbled at her collarbone “I really really don’t”  
“But I should?” he asked, pulling away from her.  
“How far did you think you could go standing out here in the street?”  
Giles just sighed and kissed her again, he sucked briefly on her lower lip.  
“I’m sorry about Ethan.” he said.  
“He actually hasn’t been that bad, I wasn’t expecting an apology” Buffy moved her hands from his back resting them on his chest, not willing to move out of his embrace too soon.  
“Yes lets see how the evening progresses.” He bent down for one more kiss holding her face with both hands.  
He then moved away from her and started walking back to the bar holding her hand.  
“Hey” she said before he walked up the steps to the bar “I love you”  
That got her one of his soft smiles, the kind of smile that was more in his eyes than his lips, every time he smiled at her like that she melted a little bit.  
“I love you too” he raised his hand to stroke her cheek.

As they wound their way through the crowd they could hear the group laughing loudly, they looked at each other bracing themselves for the stories being told.  
Giles stopped at the bar, grabbing beers for them before they joined the group.  
“Do I want to know what we missed?” Giles asked as he sat down but Buffy could see that he had a small smile on his face. He leaned back in his chair and put his arm over the back of her chair. She looked up at Ethan who was grinning at her, he gave her a little wink before turning back to Willow and Xander.  
“I promise you it was perfectly safe.”  
“Safe?” Willow asked incredulously “how can you say that?”  
“Because it was all under control, I might have miscalculated the time frame a little bit but no one was in any actual danger. Anyway it ended worse for me than him.” Ethan’s face darkened at his last words.  
“Wait so you’re talking about the time you turned Giles into a demon? That was all perfectly safe?” Buffy’s voice was as disbelieving as Willow’s had been.  
“It was.” Ethan said simply.  
“I almost killed him”  
“My dear you weren’t even close to killing him”  
“He could have killed you if I hadn’t found you.”  
“No he was still Rupert, he might have beaten me to a pulp but he wouldn’t have killed me.”  
Buffy sighed, realising that he was probably right, when she realised the demon was Giles he had calmed down quickly, he probably knew what he was doing in a way.  
“What did you mean about the time frame?” Willow asked.  
“Well, the spell causes the victim to slowly become more like the demon. I thought he’d find me quicker and be….more Rupert less Fyarl.”  
“There was that side effect of me actually not being able to speak english, that slowed me down. You left an obvious trail but I couldn’t get the woman to tell me where you were staying when I couldn’t ask.”  
“What woman? And how did you find him?” Olivia asked, obviously amused by the story.  
“Before he cast the spell we were drinking in a bar and Ethan gave his number to the waitress.” Giles smirked at Ethan before continuing “I guessed that he’d done that for me to be able to find him. I had no idea how to do that however since I couldn’t talk to anyone. However I ran into someone who happened to speak Fyarl, I don’t want to think about how that night would have ended if I hadn’t.”  
“So your master plan, that lives depended on, was to count on Giles remembering that you’d talked to a waitress? Sounds like you were very lucky that things turned out the way they did” Willow said rather harshly.  
“People usually remember things that stand out, anything out of the usual, out of character, me giving my number to a waitress isn’t something Rupert would easily forget.”  
Buffy was annoyed at how relaxed Ethan could always act. She had no idea if any of this made him uncomfortable, except for the first few minutes of the evening he’d always looked calm and bordering on smug no matter the topic.  
Willow however had gone from anger at Ethan’s risky spell to confusion tilting her head and studying Ethan intently.  
Ethan laughed “Didn’t think I’d need to spell it out to you of all people. I’ve never been too keen on the company of women, love, trying to pick up a waitress in a bar would be very out of character. Enough to make sure that no matter how drunk Ripper was he’d remember the conversation.”  
Willow blushed very slightly and looked down for a moment before quickly glancing back up at Ethan with a small apologetic smile.

“Soooo” Xander broke the tense silence “did we tell you about the time Buffy killed a demon with a rocket launcher?”  
Xander started telling an exaggerated version of the story and Buffy felt Giles lean his head down to her. She looked up at him and he bent further down to whisper “I told you I was sorry about him” she just laughed and moved a little closer to him.  
“So yeah it turned out that he was no match for a rocket launcher, we spent hours picking up pieces of him” Xander ended in disgust.

Ed waved to the waitress as she passed, asking for another round halting the conversation. She returned quickly with a full tray, going around the table handing each of them a glass. Buffy noticed that she kept looking back at her and Giles. She just smiled back nuzzling a little closer to him. Giles didn’t seem to notice but Ethan chuckled.  
“You’ll drive yourself mad if you intend to be jealous of every girl that makes eyes at him, you know.” He said in a low teasing tone, clearly not meant for the whole table.’  
“Just because you get jealous doesn’t mean Buffy is.” Giles replied dryly causing both Ethan and Buffy to look at him with surprise in their eyes.  
“No but the fact that she’s practically had her claws out every time the poor girl shows up with a fresh round does.”  
Giles looked down at Buffy who could feel herself blush. Giles moved his hand from the back of her chair to soothingly stroke his fingers over her shoulder. 

“So Willow, when will you join the council and give us the full set of….what did you call yourselves? The Scoobies?” Lianna asked, unaware that she’d disturbed Giles as he was about to say something more to Ethan.  
“Oh I don’t know.” Willow replied shyly.  
“I’ve offered her everything I can.” Giles said in a regretful tone but a small smile played on his lips.  
“You showed her the books right?” Xander asked.  
“I didn’t just show her the books, I had Charlie show her the books.” Giles winked at Xander and the two of them laughed.  
“Wait what?” Willow sat up in her chair.  
“I’m kidding,” Giles said, tilting his head as he added “mostly.”  
“Did you try to bribe Willow into working at the council by using gorgeous women?” Buffy looked up at Giles “Nice touch.”  
Everyone but Willow laughed at that, she watched the three of them with narrowed eyes.  
“What’s gotten into the three of you?”  
“I’m sorry Willow” Giles said sincerely “You know that there will always be a place for you at the council and we are not pressuring you to join.”  
Willow smiled back but was still looking suspiciously between Giles, Buffy and Xander.

“How strange is it that I became a watcher instead of you. You’re basically a mini Giles.”  
“A mini Giles?” Giles laughed looking from Willow to Xander.  
“Yeah! You know you two are smarter than everyone else and both like books way too much both into magic, I always thought if any one of us would become a watcher it would be Willow. Whenever Giles wasn’t around she would take care of the planning and research and that stuff.”  
“Not around, am I too believe you actually took a break from being the all important watcher every once in a while?” Ethan asked mockingly before grinning at Giles “oh wait yes what did you say that last time. That you were called an absent male role model?”  
“What?” Buffy couldn’t ever remember Giles saying anything like that.  
He sighed and didn’t look at her as he answered “Maggie Walsh said something to that effect, she assumed I was some sort of father figure.”  
“Well you did sleep with her mother” Xander said giggling.  
“Xander” Buffy and Willow shouted his name simultaneously while the rest of the group except for Giles burst out laughing.

“Wow Rupert” Lianna said when she managed to stop laughing “sleeping with you slayers mother I’m sure there was a rule against that somewhere. But I guess that sounds better than sleeping with your girlfriend's mother.” she barely got the last words out she was laughing so much.  
“It was that blasted candy of yours” Giles sounded sullen, Ethan simply raised an eyebrow thoroughly enjoying this conversation.  
Buffy looked around at the group, most of them still laughing and had a sinking feeling that something was off but couldn’t quite put her finger on what. She shrugged it off, she was probably just being over sensitive. 

“Did you do something?” Buffy looked up at Willow’s voice, she was staring at Ethan with narrowed eyes and a hard face as she talked.  
“What do you mean?” Ethan looked confused for a moment and then he tilted his head and his eyes traveled from Giles to Buffy and over the rest of the people on the other side of the table.  
“I see your point but this isn’t my work.”  
“And I’m supposed to believe that? I’d say this is exactly like something you would do.”

“What are you talking about Will? What did he do?” Buffy sat up straight and didn’t take her eyes off Ethan as she talked.  
“Everyone is being a little bit too open and honest here tonight, I think it might be a spell and it feels very much like something Ethan would do.”  
“A spell?” Olivia sounded unconvinced “haven’t they just had a bit too much to drink?”  
“No, I’ve seen them drunk before and this is not it.”

“If someone put a spell on my beer again I’m never drinking again.” Buffy pushed her half empty glass away and looked at Giles when she heard him laughing.  
“I’m sorry” he said in between giggles.  
“So what you’re saying there’s something going on like that candy curse?” Lianna looked skeptically between Ethan and Willow.  
“No nothing as refined as that” Ethan was staring at Giles as he talked, studying him. “Maybe just some spell to lower inhibitions.”  
“Aren’t you two being a little overdramatic.” Giles asked dismissively, taking a drink from his beer and tightening his hold on Buffy’s shoulder. She reached up to hold his hand rubbing her thumb over his palm.  
“Olivia and Ed have been fairly quiet so I think it’s safe to assume they are unaffected. As for the rest of you I only know Rupert well enough to say that he is acting out of character.” Ethan looked expectantly at Willow.  
“Well I agree about Giles and even though Xander does have a way of putting his foot in his mouth but yeah not normal behaviour for him here tonight.”  
Xander opened his mouth, it was clear that he was about to object but he suddenly stopped.  
“You might be right” he said slowly and Buffy swore she could see him mentally go over the evening.  
“How ‘bout the slayer?” Ethan asked, looking Buffy up and down “she hasn’t punched me yet, that’s out of character. But she hasn’t said anything scandalous either. So what’s the connection?”  
“We all work for the council?” Lianna said slowly.  
“You’re affected?” Willow asked quickly.  
“Well I just made fun of my boss, not in a small teasing way but in a ‘he might be massively insulted’ way. I don’t actually care, but….well isn’t that the issue?”  
“So someone cursed the council staff?” Ethan ran a hand over his face and then chuckled.


	6. Chapter 6

Buffy didn’t feel like she was cursed.  
She hadn’t said anything tonight that was out of the ordinary, Ethan and Willow were probably wrong. She looked at Xander and thought about everything he’d said, she couldn’t believe he’d told everyone about Giles and her mother.  
Then again at least half of them already knew so what did it really matter.  
Giles had been a little different, he’d been unusually forward outside the bar but nothing scandalous. However that jealousy comment just after Ethan had told Willow that he was gay was probably enough for at least Willow to figure out that there was more than friendship in their past. That isn’t anything to worry about either, Giles isn’t ashamed of his sexuality he’s just a very private person. 

Buffy slowly realised that these were all things she would usually be worried about. She did feel drunk in the way that she felt a little careless, free and daring but she didn’t feel like she was actually drunk, no numbness or slowness just the good parts. She could enjoy this especially if Giles was feeling the same way. 

Ethan and Willow were deep in conversation across the table, discussing what kind of spell could cause this. On the other side of them Xander was telling a story that she couldn’t hear, leaving her and Giles almost separated from the group. Buffy was still stroking the inside of Giles’ palm with her thumb, she placed her left hand on his thigh to get his attention.  
“You ok?” she asked when he looked at her.  
“I feel fine, I think they are being a bit over dramatic” he waved his hand at Ethan and Willow.  
Buffy ran her hand higher up his thigh, Giles glanced at her hand and then looked at her with a small grin.  
“Are you bored, love?”  
“Yeah, I think we could have a lot more fun at a place that isn’t here.” She spoke softly trying not to let Ethan and Willow overhear her. She looked to the exit a few feet to her right, just past the bar.  
“I think the odds of us sneaking out are low but we could try.”  
Buffy saw the glint in his eyes and it made her shiver with excitement, she licked her lips while staring at his. “Try to follow” she whispered before standing up.  
“Where are you going?” Willow asked as soon as Buffy stood up.  
“The bathroom, I’ll be right back.”  
She walked towards the bathrooms but stopped when she had just passed the bar. She took a few steps to the side trying to be less visible to the group while she could still see Giles who was watching her. After another minute he stood up, grabbing his jacket and walking the same path through the bar as she had. As he got closer she started moving towards the exit. No one had stood up from the table so hopefully they could sneak out before anyone noticed.  
Giles caught up with her and they walked past the bar again but now on the other side. Just when they reached the exit she heard Ethan's voice behind them.  
“Should have just gone for the bathrooms mate, I’m not letting the two of you leave while we don’t know what’s going on.”  
“You’re no fun anymore. This isn’t serious, just call us if you need help.” Giles put his hand around Buffy’s shoulder turning back to the exit.  
“Just come back and finish your pint. Give me and the redhead a chance to figure this out.”  
They begrudgingly agreed to go back to the table, sitting back in their chairs and quickly assuming the same position where Buffy could both stroke Giles’ palm and fingers with her right hand while her left gently teased his thigh. 

On the other side of the table Lianna was laughing at Xander’s story.  
Olivia looked between the laughing woman beside her over to Buffy and Giles with slightly narrowed eyes.  
“Willow?” Olivia spoke loudly enough for Willow to hear her over Xander and Lianna laughing. “Is there any actual reason to believe that it was the council staff that was…” she trailed off realising she was speaking loudly enough to be heard by the people around.  
“Are these four not convincing you?” Ethan muttered, looking bored by the whole thing slumping slightly in his chair with his legs crossed..  
“No I mean, let's assume that the reason they are affected and not us is because of the council. What about the students?”  
Buffy saw Willows eyes widen.  
“Oh my! I hadn’t thought about that.”  
“So what, I thought we’d already agreed that this isn’t anything serious. Look around, no ones in danger.” Buffy couldn’t understand why Willow was so worried.  
“Yeah but a group of angsty teenagers with no inhibitions could do a lot worse than you guys. We have to go to the dorms.” She spoke the last words to Ethan who choked on his beer. “How did that become my responsibility? It’s definitely not my job to prevent some council whelps from having an orgy, I’m fine here.”  
“This became your job when you showed me again and again through the years that you're the expert when it comes to mind manipulating spells.”  
Buffy laughed at the annoyed face Ethan made.  
“Olivia can you and Ed make sure Lianna gets home safe and that she stays there? Usually these sorts of spells wear off but we’ll try to reverse it if we can figure out who did it.”  
“Are you sure you don’t want help?” Ed asked, looking skeptically at Willow.  
“I can take care of these three. I’m sure I can convince Ethan that helping Giles is in his best interest.”  
Ed chuckled but nodded and got up from his seat “I’ll get the bill, you just get them out of here.”.  
Willow started ushering the rest of them from the table.

“Which way are the dorms?” Willow asked when they were all outside the bar.  
“That way” Giles pointed up the street. He’d put his arm around Buffy as they walked out of the bar but now as they stood outside he’d moved her in his arms so she stood in front of him with his arms wrapped around her. Willow was probably right about this spell, Giles usually never acted like this in public. Sometimes he’d put an arm around her waist as they walked or hold her hand, a few chaste kisses here and there. Nothing like this, holding her tightly to him letting the warmth of him keep her warm against the chill of the evening. Buffy almost purred when she felt his fingers rub against her hip, lifting her shirt slightly to stroke the skin just above her jeans and she nuzzled back against his chest. ´

“Ok we can walk it right, it was close to the council building?”  
“Yeah it’s less than 10 minutes from here.” Xander answered looking at Buffy and Giles a little suspiciously.  
“We’ll follow you” Willow told him lightly pushing him in the direction Giles had pointed.  
“I guess we should help them.” Buffy looked up into Giles’ eyes, not moving out of his embrace.  
“Yes” He bent his head down and nibbled at her lower lip briefly before kissing her “I guess we should.”  
They followed Willow and Xander in silence, Ethan walking on Giles’ other side trailing behind slightly. 

When they entered the dorms Buffy noticed the empty desk in the center of the room.  
“Someone’s supposed to be here right?” Willow asked, walking around looking for any sign of life.  
“Yeah there’s always a security guard or watcher here.” Xander answered, he walked down a corridor to their right calling out to see if anyone was around.  
Buffy looked around to see that Ethan had walked over to the desk and started going through the drawers.  
“So should we just split up and try to find some of the students? See if they are acting normal?” She suggested.  
Ethan chuckled “Yes lets split up, I’m sure you and Rupert could have a great time in a closet somewhere while we try to sort out this mess. Why don’t I go with Rupert and check the other building while you three go upstairs?”  
Buffy instinctively moved even closer under Giles’ arm and moved her hand up to his chest.  
She saw Ethan roll his eyes, “Doesn’t get jealous, my arse.” he muttered as he walked over to Willow.  
“Leave it Eth.” Giles sounded angry, he moved his arm from around Buffy, grabbed her hand and started walking in the opposite direction when they heard laughter from outside.  
Everyone turned to face the door as a group of about 30 watcher and slayer trainees came walking up the steps all freezing on the spot when they saw them. 

Giles let go of Buffy’s hand and walked to the center of the room, resting back against the desk and crossing his arms in front of his chest with a grin on his face that Buffy knew was designed to make the trainees even more nervous than they already looked.  
“Who performed the spell?” Giles said simply in a low voice.  
“We did, sir.” Buffy didn’t recognise the two boys who raised their hands, but she assumed they were some of the more advanced watcher trainees. They looked like they were probably around 20 years old.  
"Adams, right?" Giles asked the one who spoke.  
"Yes sir."  
"And Smith?" Giles turned to the one who had only raised his hand.  
"Yes, sir."  
“Were there others?” Giles spoke in the same low and calm voice, reminding Buffy of various times she had been on the receiving end of his disappointment when she was younger although he seemed to be enjoying this which she never thought he did back in Sunnydale.  
“Others, sir?” Adams asked as his voice shook.  
“Did you perform any more magic than this little trick of yours?”  
“No sir, just the one.”  
“What was your intention?”  
“Just what it did sir, relax the people working in the building so we could go out past curfew without them caring.” He sounded proud of himself for a moment but then he met Giles’ eyes and he quickly looked down at the floor.  
“Oh the short sightedness of youth.” Ethan chuckled “save me here Rupert or I might actually have to lecture them on their stupidity and I don’t think any of us can handle that much responsibility coming from me.” The group of trainees all looked at Ethan, some of them mostly looking confused but a few looked either scared or angry. 

“Uhm, Mr. Giles, what are you doing here? Did something happen?” Gyeong asked hesitantly.  
“Well your spell didn’t work like you planned.” Xander replied coming to stand beside the desk and assuming a similar position to Giles but didn’t look quite as relaxed nor as intimidating.  
“Who’s idea was it to use magic to sneak out? And who came up with that spell?” Giles asked.  
“Mine, sir.” Wyatt, one of the watcher trainees who had been patrolling with Buffy earlier replied with an unconvincing confidence.  
“And I found the spell sir” the one called Adams added.  
“Is the book you used in the building?”  
“Yes sir, it’s in my room.”  
“Go get it. Willow go with him.”  
The boy looked suspiciously at Willow but didn’t say anything. He just pointed in the direction of his room and walked away with Willow at his side.

Giles looked at his watch and chuckled.  
“They use magic to sneak out and are back an hour after curfew, a bit disappointing isn’t it?” he asked no one in particular.  
Ethan laughed and all the trainees turned back to him.  
“So children, who knows what went wrong with your little spell?” he asked in a lecturing note, ruining the effect by chuckling.  
“Did someone get hurt?” Gyeong asked with wide eyes, while someone asked “Who are you?”  
Ethan ignored the second question, looking at Gyeong as he answered her.  
“I didn’t ask what went wrong because of the spell, we’ll come to that later. I asked what went wrong with your spell.”  
“They have no idea.” Willow answered him coming back into the room holding a book with the boy following her looking rather sheepish.

All of a sudden Buffy felt a chill go through her. She raised her hand to quiet Willow who was starting to say something more to Ethan and Giles.  
Everyone turned to look at Buffy as she stared at the open doors behind the trainees.  
"Did any of you sense anything on your way back? Do you know if you were followed?" She asked the slayer trainees.  
They looked between each other, the looks on their faces were enough to answer her question.  
"None of you realised that a group of kids coming back after a night out was likely to draw out the creepy crawlies?"  
She walked closer to the door looking out.  
"Do you at least have some weapons?"  
Most of the girls drew out stakes and Buffy saw that some of the watchers passed stakes to the girls who hadn't brought any.  
"Were going to check this out." she said to Giles.  
“Did you see what it is?”  
“No but I think it’s vampires.”  
Giles tilted his head a little bit before nodding, his silent plea for her to be careful.

"Gyeong come with me, the rest of you follow but keep your distance."  
When Buffy got closer to the street she heard footsteps on both sides. Looking around she saw two vampires on either side of them.  
"I told you they'd separate eventually" A blonde vampire to Buffy's right drawled, looking very proud of herself. She was dressed all in black, leather pants and a black lace shirt.  
"Aren't we a stereotype" Buffy said mockingly. "You might consider some color or you know at least some cotton if you walk around dressed like that you could just wear a sign that says 'stay away I'm a vampire'."

The vampire narrowed her eyes, obviously not expecting someone who knew about vampires.  
"Left or right?" Buffy asked Gyeong who tilted her head to the left briefly in answer.  
The vampires reacted by quickly moving closer together, all four of them standing in front of the two slayers.  
Buffy reached over and tapped two fingers on Gyeong's forearm trying to indicate that they should back up.  
They took a few steps backwards before all four vampires lounged at them.  
Buffy managed to stake the vampire who had talked to them immediately, then she grabbed a vampire, throwing him a few feet to the side.  
"That one's all yours" she called back to the group of slayers. She saw two of the more experienced ones run down the steps towards him.  
Buffy then turned and roundhouse kicked one of the two vampires that had attacked Gyeong.  
She decided to take her time, hoping the vampire was up for a good fight.  
She had to admit, taking the other slayers out on patrol, getting to fight the vampires but not actually stake them was a very unsatisfying experience.  
She saw Gyeong stake the one she’d been fighting and briefly glanced over her shoulder and saw that the two girls had not managed to finish their fight.  
“Go help them if they need it, I got this one” she called to Gyeong as she blocked a blow aimed at her jaw.  
“Who the fuck are you?” the vampire spat at her as he recovered from a kick she had managed to land in the middle of his stomach.  
“All you need to know is that all of us are still standing but there are only two of you left.” as she said it she heard a cheer behind her “and now there’s just the one.” She smirked at him.  
The vampire growled and jumped at her. She ducked and started pummelling him, landing a series of blows and kicks without him managing to put up much of a fight.

“Buffy you are setting a bad precedent” she heard Giles call out “put the thing out of its misery.”  
“Yes, sir” she called back teasingly, reaching for her stake again and dusting the vampire easily.  
The trainees cheered as Buffy jogged back to them and up the steps, Giles had resumed his position leaning against the desk and the girls got quiet as they remembered that they were in trouble.  
“Any injuries?” Buffy asked the slayers who had fought and they all shook their heads.  
“Good job.” She gave them a brief smile before walking over to Giles stopping in front of him.  
“You ok?” he briefly ran a hand down her upper arm.  
“Yeah that was fun.” She knew she was beaming at him but she couldn’t help it. A good fight and reporting back to Giles after, it was all she could ask for.  
“Got the adrenaline running?” he asked in a suggestive tone raising his eyebrow at her.  
She giggled at him and then just nodded, licking her lips.

Willow came to stand next to Giles and Buffy moved out of the way and sat down between Giles and Xander.  
Xander didn’t seem to be paying attention to anything that was going on, he seemed to be texting, never taking his eyes off his phone.  
Willow handed Giles the book she’d brought back open to the spell that had been performed.  
“Christ” he hissed and Buffy saw him clench his fist briefly before slamming the book down on the desk.  
“You two” he pointed to the two boys who had performed the spell and then pointed to the floor in front of him. They hesitated for a second before hurrying to stand where Giles had pointed.  
“Just how bloody stupid are you?”  
Ethan walked over, grabbed the book and skimmed over a few pages.  
“Bugger it, I should have kept you lot at the pub for a few more hours, could have been an excellent night.”  
Giles raised himself from the desk snatching the book back from Ethan.  
“No matter what happens to my conscience at least I know that whenever you are this pleased by a situation I should be worried.”  
Giles handed Willow back the book. “Take Ethan and these two…” he hesitated clenching his jaw “and reverse this.” 

Willow hesitated looking from Giles to the trainees who were all looking scared.  
“Do you need anything to reverse it, Will?” Buffy asked, getting very bored with the high tension in the room.  
“Yeah a few herbs and chalk.”  
“Do you have what you need to reverse it in your room?” Buffy asked the boy.  
“Yes, I think so.”  
“Go get it, quickly. Bring it back here.”  
The boy walked off almost running.  
She looked around the room, Xander was still standing next to the desk, all his attention on his phone. Ethan had gone to the back of the room, he was leaning up against a wall trying to look disinterested. The group of trainees stood very close together, none of them made eye contact or said anything.  
She jumped back down from the desk and stood close to Giles’ side leaning in to whisper in his ears. She didn’t need to whisper; she just wanted the excuse to get closer to him.  
“Why don’t you send the rest of them off to their rooms and we’ll deal with them later?”  
Giles smiled at her and glanced over to the trainees.  
He seemed to think about it for a moment before sighing and waving his hand at them.  
“The rest of you get out of here. Go to your rooms but I want all of you in the training room at noon tomorrow.”

The group scattered down the two hallways or up the stairs, some of them mumbling apologies or whispering to each other..  
“Not you.” Giles said angrily straightening up when the boy called Smith who’d performed the spell started walking away. He froze, staring at the floor.  
Willow pulled on his arm taking him over to the back of the room and they moved some chairs to the side making room for them to perform the reversal.

“So the spell is worse than you thought?” Buffy spoke quietly moving closer to Giles again reaching out to hold his hand. He sighed and relaxed a little pulling her to him and resting back on the desk.  
“It’s effects appear slowly so that those who are cursed are less likely to notice the changes.” He spread his legs slightly tugging on her waist so she stood between them. Buffy smiled, raising her hands to slowly stroke his chest and Giles moved his hands to her waist sliding them down from her ribs to her hips and back.  
“Ok? That isn’t what made you so angry though...”  
“The effects get more intense overtime if the spell isn’t reversed.”  
“We knew that sir” The boy who was helping Willow was sitting on the floor with their back to them. He turned around as he spoke and gasped when he saw their position. He blushed and quickly looked down and turned his back on them again.  
“You knew?” Willow asked, rolling her eyes at Buffy and Giles.  
He started explaining to Willow that they were sure they had a few more hours before the effects would be very intense and they had planned to come back and reverse it before that. He babbled on about what they had read about the development of the spell and Buffy stopped listening, moving the fingers of one hand up to tickle at Giles’ jaw so that he would turn his face back to face her.  
“You ok love?” he asked. He sounded and looked like a different person from just a few minutes ago when he was talking to the trainees he looked dangerous but now with the way he looked at her she had a hard time accepting that it was the same person.  
“Yeah I’m fine, just thinking about your multiple personalities.” She teased, moving closer to place kisses down his neck and one at the opening of his henley. She felt his hands grip her a little tighter and smiled at the effect she had on him.

“You two sit over there while we get this set up.”  
Buffy looked up at Willow's words, the other boy had returned with the spell ingredients.  
The two of them moved over to the chairs Willow had pointed at, both of them stealing glances at Giles and Buffy.  
“I guess our relationship won’t be a secret anymore.” Giles looked into her eyes as he spoke like he was looking for something.  
“Does it matter? We were never going to be able to keep it secret forever.”  
“I kind of liked sneaking around in my office.” he said with a glint in his eyes.  
“We can still do that.” She put her arms around his neck and pressed her body against his brushing her lips against his but pulling her face away before he could actually kiss her.  
A tiny growl escaped from him as he gripped her hips.  
“You two are nauseating” Xander quipped, Buffy had forgotten that he was standing so close to them and giggled.  
“Did Becca notice the spell?” Buffy asked him.  
“Xander just grumbled something walking away barely looking up from his phone.

“So you’re ok that everyone finds out?” Buffy turned her attention back to Giles.  
“I am right now, let’s see what happens tomorrow.” he answered with a small smirk.  
“Do you feel very different from normal?”  
“No but I am aware that I’ve said and done things I normally wouldn’t.” He reached down grabbing her ass with both hands and pulling her closer.  
“Like that?”  
Giles just quirked his eyebrow at her before kissing her briefly.  
“We really need to get out of her.” He sighed as she moved her arms from around his neck to tease his nipples through his shirt. She noticed that everyone was standing behind him and most of them facing the other direction so she could touch him a little more without any of them noticing.  
“Yeah we really really do” she whispered in his ear as she ran her hands lower down his body cupping his cock through his jeans, feeling him start to harden in her hands.  
She saw him biting his lips but he made no noise, he let her massage him a little bit before grabbing her wrist and pulling her hand away, bending down to kiss her fiercely.  
He quickly broke the kiss, turning her around in his arms and then turning both of them to face the others.

Willow and Ethan had sat down in the middle of a symbol that had been drawn on the floor.  
Ethan was lighting some herbs and both of them were chanting.  
“It’s very weird to see them working together,” Buffy whispered.  
“I actually think they would enjoy working together if they could set their differences aside, they have a lot in common.” Giles replied.  
“Yeah I don’t see either of them doing that.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maybe not 95% smut this time....but fairly close to that.  
> Be warned!

As soon as Giles closed the door to their bedroom Buffy pushed him up against it and kissed him roughly. The evening had felt like a long slow round of foreplay and she didn’t want to wait any longer.  
Giles put his hands on her shoulders and gently pushed her away. “Wait a minute, love” he said as he caught his breath from the kiss.  
She whimpered causing him to chuckle “I just want to talk to you about something first.” 

She couldn’t imagine what he wanted to talk about but it sounded serious. She felt a small pit in her stomach and took a deep breath before walking over to the bed.  
“Hey” he said softly, grabbing her hand before she made it to the bed and pulling her into a hug “I just want to talk, but it can wait if you’re not up for it.” He soothingly stroked her back as he talked.   
She smiled up at him and shook her head. “No let’s talk.”  
They both kicked off their shoes and Giles sat on the bed, sitting up against the headboard stretching his long legs across the bed and Buffy sat cross legged in the middle of the bed facing him.   
Buffy waited for him to start the conversation but he didn’t, he raised one of his knees resting his arm on it and watched his own fingers as he moved his signet ring.  
“Giles? Did I do something?”  
“God no Buffy I’m sorry,” he reached out and squeezed her hand briefly and he didn’t let it go, brushing his thumb over her knuckles as he continued talking. “I’m just trying to find the right words, I’m worried the spell might make us speak carelessly.”  
“So this isn’t something that came up tonight? This is something you’ve been meaning to talk to me about?” her mind was racing trying to figure out what was bothering him.  
“Well yes, tonight just…” he sighed “tonight just made it harder to ignore.”  
Buffy’s heart ached, she had done something wrong, something that was bothering him. She felt her breathing get faster and her heart was pounding.

“I’m in this strange position of having been there for all your serious relationships. Heard you talk about your problems and witnessed your break ups.”   
He gave her a half hearted smile.   
“And well I have never understood how but it has always been fairly obvious that you seem to suffer from a lot of insecurities and jealousy when it comes to your partners.”   
“Is this about Ethan?”  
“No, well he made it difficult to ignore with his comments tonight but it is something that has bothered me before.”  
“Buffy, you had a really traumatic first relationship. The insecurities that you showed early on with Angel could be easily explained by your age. I’m not even going to go into Riley but me...” he hesitated looking into her eyes. He seemed to be waiting to see if she would interject.  
“I saw the way you watched the waitress tonight and I notice how you react if I compliment someone and how you look at my secretary.”   
Buffy felt herself blush, he was right. She did seem to stress about every beautiful woman around him. She looked down at their hands where he was still rubbing her knuckles and thought about whether he was right about her doing this with everyone. She had freaked out when Angel simply talked to Drusilla or Cordelia, she had never managed to get over the whole Riley and Faith thing, she had freaked out feeling like she wasn’t good enough when she met Riley’s wife and had even gotten jealous of Faith and Spike, when there was nothing going on between them or between her and Spike at the time. She sighed, he was right but she had no idea how to stop feeling like this. Losing Giles would break her so of course gorgeous women flirting with him threatened her.  
“I’m not saying this to make you feel bad about it. I just want us to talk about it, doesn’t have to be tonight. I just don’t want you to feel insecure. When I really think about it I do know that you trust me, even though it can be difficult to believe when you seem to feel so threatened by other women.”  
“Of course I trust you” she spoke so quietly she wasn’t sure he had heard her.  
“Christ, love come here.” He pulled her into his lap so she straddled him. She put her face in the crook of his neck and he resumed stroking her back.  
She breathed deep, loving the smell of him, right in his neck she could smell his cologne and just him. Funny how much scent can bring back memories. The smell of Giles always made her feel safe, brought her back to the library, talking on his couch in Sunnydale or long drawn out mornings in bed. She felt some of the tension leave her body, he wasn’t accusing her of anything he just wanted to help her work through this, he wanted her and them to be secure and happy.  
“I’m not saying any of this to make you feel bad.” He pushed her up so he could look in her eyes. “I want to ask you to think about where these feelings are coming from so we can work through them together. I don’t want you to feel insecure.” He placed one of his hands on the side of her face stroking her cheek. “I just want you to be happy and I don’t want anything like this to come between us.”   
She smiled as he seemed to put words to her thoughts.  
“I’ll start by trying to convince you that to me you are the most beautiful woman in any room.” he lifted her face up again “you are also smart” he kissed her forehead, “funny”, he kissed her cheek, “independant” he kissed her neck “capable” he sat up straighter looping an arm around her back to support her as he leaned her back a little so his next kiss could be placed in the center of her chest.   
Buffy smiled reaching to stroke her hand through his hair.  
“Loving” he kissed her collarbone “fiercely loyal” and the other.  
He stopped talking and trailed kisses down her chest over the exposed skin of her chest finally licking between her breasts and up to her neck before he pulled her back up so she was flush against him.  
“You are my everything Buffy and we’ll find a way to make you feel secure in that knowledge.”

“Wow, you really are good with words aren’t you.” she teased him and he rolled his eyes at her.  
“Thank you.” she took his face in both her hands “I love you and I do trust you. I don’t know why I feel like this but I’ll work on it.”  
“Just talk to me about it. That’s all I’m asking of you.” He wrapped both arms tightly around her and kissed her, holding her close but not escalating the kiss. She felt like she had never been as loved as she was in that moment. 

He broke the kiss, giving her a few quick pecks on her lips and cheeks.   
“Now will you please fuck me Giles, I feel like you’ve been teasing me all night and now all these declerations I don’t think I’ve ever needed you more.” She smiled as she took advantage of their positions to grind herself down on him.  
Giles threw his head back and laughed loudly.

“I think that can be arranged” he smiled at her suggestively before drawing his feet closer and quickly moving so she was lying on the bed and he was on top of her. He put his hand roughly in her hair and kissed her deeply, exploring her mouth with his tongue.   
She moaned as he broke the kiss and bit her earlobe before kissing and sucking on her pulse point. Giles did tend to lean to the rougher side in bed, she was not surprised that his lack of inhibition would exaggerate that tendency.   
She wrapped her legs around his hips pulling him closer to her and grabbed the hem of his shirt and started pushing it up his chest.

He moved away from her just long enough to lift the shirt over his head and he threw it to the side as he leaned back down and started kissing her again. The kiss was passionate and they were quickly both out of breath. Giles sat up bringing her up with him so she was sitting in his lap again.   
He held her hip in one hand and slid the other back into her hair pulling her head back so he had better access to her neck.  
He suddenly stopped, withdrawing his hand from her head and putting his forehead on her chest breathing hard.   
“What happened?” She ran her fingernails over his scalp gently massaging his head.  
He looked up, looking a bit sheepish “I’m sorry I got a bit carried away there, did I hurt you?”  
She stifled her laugh but couldn’t stop her smile “Giles I’m your slayer, I can take a little hair pulling. You won’t hurt me.”  
“I guess I didn’t mean hurt, but I shouldn’t have done that without talking to you first.”  
She smiled again scraping her fingernails along his scalp again causing him to shiver.  
“You can be rough with me Giles, let’s talk before you try out anything extreme but some hair pulling and just all around general roughness is very much a turn on with you.”

She could see his pupils dilate and he grabbed her hips briefly.  
“I’ll keep that in mind.” his voice was a bit gravely and she was once again surprised by how much effect his voice had on her.   
“You are wearing far too many clothes” he whispered and lifted her from his lap pushing her to her feet next to the bed.   
Giles moved to follow her but she pushed him back against the headboard. He looked at her a bit quizzically but relaxed back against it.  
She slowly unbuttoned her shirt and let it fall from her shoulders, she then reached up and removed the tie from her hair letting it fall over her shoulders.  
Giles grinned at her lacing his hands behind his head.  
She unbuttoned and unzipped her jeans, pushing them down her thighs and kicking them to the side.  
“More?” she asked simply and Giles nodded slowly, his breathing was obviously getting faster.  
She reached back and unfastened her bra, letting it slide down her arms and drop to the floor.   
Buffy noticed Giles’ tongue dart out to wet his lips and he drew a knee up, resting his arm over it letting his other hand drop to his side.  
She felt herself respond to his reactions, always enjoying the effect she had on him.   
Buffy cupped her breasts lifting them and lightly massaging them, when she heard a soft moan come from Giles she smiled before she twisted her nipples eliciting a groan from him. He reached his hand toward her in a silent request for her to return to the bed.  
She just shook her head taking half a step back so he couldn’t easily reach her.  
He bit the inside of his lip but didn’t try to touch her again.

Buffy massaged her breasts and teased her nipples for another minute, moaning as her nipples got so hard it almost hurt. She then trailed one of her hands between her breasts and slowly down her stomach dipping into her lace panties, giving herself some relief by pressing on her clit. She threw her head back and moaned loudly as she circled her clit with her middle finger and then moved it to press at her entrance. She had been wet since Giles pressed her against the wall outside the bar, now she could feel it start to run down her thighs.  
She wanted to break Giles’ resolve, bring out the part of him that had pulled on her hair earlier and she thought she knew how to do it. She made eye contact with him as she moved her hand up to her lip, licking her middle finger, tasting herself.

She heard him mutter a curse as he tensed on the bed.  
“What do you want Giles?”   
A smirk spread across his face as he got up, grabbing the back of her neck and pulling her in for a kiss, immediately pushing his tongue into her mouth and they fought for dominance of the kiss. His other hand roughly grabbed one of her ass cheeks and pulled her to him so she could feel his erection through his jeans.  
He broke the kiss and looked her in the eyes as they both panted for breath.  
“Is this what you want?” he asked her, his voice low and hoarse.  
“God yes.” She grabbed his wrist moving his hand between her legs so he could feel just how much she wanted this.   
A groan escaped him and he tightened the grip on the back of her neck when he felt the heat between her legs.  
“On your knees.” he stared into her eyes as he spoke. He briefly teased her clit, enough to make her feel like her knees could actually give out, before he withdrew his hand. 

Buffy quickly dropped to her knees and unbuttoned his jeans pushing them down. She smiled up at him when she found him naked underneath. He kicked them away and just looked at her expectantly.   
As much as he seemed to like to be a little dominant he also seemed to like it when she fought back a little so she decided to tease him a bit.  
She bent down to lick the inside of his thigh up to his groin, the sharp intake of breath she heard spurred her on and she repeated the action on the other thigh.   
She flattened her tongue and licked up the underside of his cock feeling herself throb from arousal when he moaned.  
She scraped her nails from his ass down the back of his thighs before she suddenly took as much of him into her mouth as she could and sucked hard.  
“Fucking hell” he growled grabbing the back of her head.  
She smirked as much as she could with him in her mouth before moving slowly up and down his length, sliding her tongue across the underside of his cock, using one hand to pump the rest of his length and the other to cup his balls.  
“Look at me.” he commanded and her eyes shot up to meet his.  
He moaned again and she moved back to only suck on the head of his cock.

“Come here”   
She stood up and Giles wrapped his arms around her grabbing her inner thighs from behind, lifting her up and pulling her legs apart to wrap them around his waist. He walked a few steps and pressed her against the wall next to the night stand.  
She cried out as he pushed into her in one thrust.  
“Fuck you feel so good, so wet, so tight.” He emphasized each description with a rough thrust. Pulling almost all the way out before pushing into her slamming her hips against the wall.  
The whole evening had left her nerves tingling and she felt herself approach orgasm faster than she thought possible.  
“God Giles please, please, please don’t stop.”   
One of his hands moved between them and almost as soon as his thumb found her clit the world disappeared in a bright white light as her orgasm crashed over her.  
She vaguely heard him curse in her ear but when she started to come down from her orgasm he was still fucking her against the wall but he had slowed down.  
He stopped moving buried inside her and moved a hand up to her face, stroking a thumb over her cheek and nipping on her bottom lip.  
“You ok, love?”   
She couldn’t help the giggle that escaped her.  
“Yeah I think I just had the most intense orgasm of my life, so yeah, definitely ok.”  
“Can you keep going?”  
She wrapped her arms tighter around his neck.  
“I love you for asking, but please don’t stop now.”   
He grinned at her before kissing her and slowly thrusting into her a few times.  
He then pulled out of her, making her whimper at his loss, before putting her down on the floor.  
“Face the night stand and bend over supporting yourself on it.”  
She smiled as a shiver went down her spine at the tone of his voice and the look in his eyes before quickly obeying his instructions.  
“He moved behind her running a finger down her spine.  
“God you are so fucking sexy.”   
His hands grabbed her ass roughly then she could feel him run the tip of his cock over her clit for a few moments before he entered her again.  
He gripped her hips tightly as he started fucking her hard.  
All she could hear was the sound of skin slapping against skin and her own moaning with each thrust.  
“Do you want to come again?” she felt him bend down over her back, nipping on her earlobe as he shortened his thrusts and moved one of his hands back to her clit.  
“God yes.” was all she managed to say, she was feeling dizzy from arousal.  
She heard him chuckle as he straightened back up and resumed his long hard thrusts but now with the added effect of his long fingers playing with her clit.   
Soon she was coming again, calling out his name as she felt him loop an arm around her waist pulling her back up against his chest, holding her tightly to him as she trembled through her orgasm.  
As she started coming down she felt herself being picked up in a bridal hold and carried to the bed. Giles laid her down in the center of the bed and settled himself between her thighs slowly kissing her cheeks, neck and chest as she caught her breath.   
When she started running her fingers through his hair and settled one of her legs over his hips he pushed inside of her once more.  
They kissed deeply as he moved her other leg up to his shoulder allowing him to go even deeper and they both moaned at the new sensation.  
“Fucking hell Buffy” he hissed as he started moving faster.  
She cried out as he quickly moved her other leg from his hip to his shoulder allowing him to go even deeper and hit just the right spot.  
There was no way she could come again, she had never had three orgasms in one night. But she felt the familiar tension building low in her stomach as he sucked and nipped on her pulse point.  
“You feel so fucking amazing love” he whispered in her ear.  
“I...” was all she managed as she started coming again. His hand tightened on her hip to the point of bruising.  
“Christ” she heard him hiss and he tensed as he came deep inside her.

“Is it ok if we sleep like this? I don’t think I can move?” He said into the crook of her neck as he started to catch his breath.  
They both laughed as he managed to roll over on to his back pulling her with him settling her against his chest.  
“I don’t have the words to describe how amazing that was.” She sighed nuzzling into his chest and running her fingers through his chest hair.   
He laughed but didn’t reply for a while.  
“It was extraordinary. You are extraordinary.” He finally said holding her tighter and kissing the top of her head.  
“We might need that spell again one day if this is the result”  
“God no!” He sighed “I think we can manage this all on our own and If we need to lower our inhibitions I’ll get us some weed or something much safer than magic.”  
Her eyebrows shot high up on her forehead and she raised herself up on her elbow to look at him.  
Giles just shook his head laughing and pulled her in for a brief kiss before they both settled down again.

“Giles?”  
“Hmm?”  
“What will we do with the trainees tomorrow?”  
He sighed reaching down to pull the covers over them.  
“Somewhere between my youth and yours I learned that trying to keep teenagers on a tight leash tends to end in disaster.”  
“Hey I was nothing compared to you.” She poked him in the side as she laughed.  
“True. I’d like to think that had something to do with me learning from my own rebellion. Remember what I told you after you lied to me so you could go to a frat party?”  
“No more pushing just gentle nudging or something like that.”  
“Yes and when you think about our relationship before that and after do you recognize a difference?”   
She thought about that for a moment, after that he had accepted her fight for independence a lot more. Helping her study so she had more free time and not objecting to her going on dates. She couldn’t remember them fighting about her wanting to do something like go to a dance and him saying no after that party.  
“Yeah ok big change.”  
“And it wasn’t just me allowing you more freedom from being the slayer almost as soon as I promised you that I would interfere less in your life you started to take more responsibility.”

“So what does that mean for the trainees?”  
“I’ll tell them that there is a power struggle and that we, and especially you, are doing our utmost to help them both in keeping them safe but providing them with a normal life. Or at least as normal as their life can get.”  
“No punishment?”  
“Judging by the looks on their faces I think their sleepless night from fear of tomorrow will be punishment enough. The two who performed the spell however will get extra lessons in the foundations of magic but also I’ll try to get them the resources they need to hone their skill. That they managed to perform that spell was very impressive.”

They laid in each other’s arms in silence for a while.  
“Giles?”  
He chuckled.  
“Yes, love?”  
“How quickly do you think the news of us will spread”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it for this part of the series.  
> I still have the idea for one more story in this series but as I've started another story I'm taking a break from this series.  
> Huge thanks to anyone who is still reading, hope you enjoyed it :)


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